If it Doesn't Fit...

This post may come across as mean, seeing that you won’t be able to hear the loving tone that I am typing it in. So please try and hear my heart in this. I am not trying to be judgmental, or mean, or rude. But this is just something I have thought about for a while and want to get it out. Ok, so now that I have built it up so much, here goes…

It often seems that some Christians have a type of spiritual turrets in the form of a compulsion to throw in comments about God during conversations, even if those comments do not fit. Similar to that jigsaw puzzle piece that you want so badly to fit, but it just won’t, no matter how hard you smash it! Don’t get me wrong, I am all about speaking about God. I think He is great! I am speaking about Him right now. But I do not see the need to force Him into every single conversation I have, most especially when it would just be totally out of place and random.

I myself, being a Christian, have found it frustrating having conversations with people who do this, so I cannot imagine how frustrating it must be for a nonChristian. I asked one of my friends, who does not currently believe in God, what he thinks about it. He said, “I really hate it when Christians feel compelled to interject their conversations with a bunch of garbage, like I am supposed to be impressed.” Though those are strong sentiments, I can’t say that my feelings are far from them. I guess the reason for my detestation of this social habit is because to me it feels fake and forced. When people have a close connection with God, it shows in their lifestyles, it naturally comes up in their conversations, but I have found most of those people do not have to try and bring God up, He is just an every day, yet important, part of their life and therefore He naturally comes up in conversation when He needs to. But when a person makes a random comment about God, one that would be considered "stretching it" as a relevant response to what i had just said, that comment, and in turn person, tends to come off as phony.

I am talking about things like me asking someone how they are doing and they reply with “God is good!” Not only does that not answer my question but it is stating the obvious. If i ask you how you are doing i really want to know how you are doing! In speaking to nonbelievers, and also being one myself for quite large portion of my life, I find they often feel like Christians have ulterior motives in building relationships with them, and these ulterior motives manifest themselves through conversations. According to them, they feel like some Christians look for every opportunity to mention God, in an attempt to “minister” to them, but they see through it and are not impressed by it. My friend I mentioned before went on to say, "Christians seem to always feel like they need to convert me in these conversations. You know what, you interjecting God into conversations isn't going to convert me. It is just going to annoy me."

People are very clever! They can see through things pretty easily. Especially in this day and age, when people have such a hunger for reality; every other show on television is a reality show. When they are served anything less than reality, they reject in its lack of authenticity. I know the intentions of these Christians are good in trying to bring up God in every conversation, but we have to realize that the point is not to name drop and bible bash; that our lifestyles should reflect Jesus in a way that we need not mention Him in every other sentence. And then, when people can see that we are genuine and true in our relationship with them and God, conversations revolving around Him and them will probably happen. And if they don’t, we shouldn't’t feel it is our inherent duty to force God into our conversations. We continue to live, love and let our actions speak louder than our hollow words. So I am asking nicely, if it doesn’t fit, pretty please with sugar on top, don’t force it!