I met Lewis in 2001 when I was a university student. I was sitting in one of the common eating areas. Exams were over and it was the last day of semester. He approached me with a smile, and asked me if I would like to talk about Christianity. People had asked me before, but I’d been busy then. However, since classes were over, I said yes.
As we started to talk, Lewis asked me some questions: “Do you believe in God?” I answered, “Yes”; I wasn’t a Christian, but I thought that there was a God. However, I wasn’t convinced that there was a way to him, and I thought being a Christian meant being good.
“Do you think you’re going to heaven?” he asked. I answered, “I guess so” because I thought that we go somewhere after we die. Then Lewis did something that I found very presumptuous and arrogant: he looked me in the eye and said, “Well, I am”.
I didn’t say anything then. I thought he was a bit of a fruitcake. But he seemed like a nice guy, and he related well to others. He was also very joyous—very vibrant and excited about being a Christian.
At the end of the conversation, he asked me if I wanted to meet up and keep chatting and maybe read the Bible. I said yes reluctantly because I thought that was a bit weird. But I had enjoyed our conversation and I wanted to prove he was wrong.
After the holidays, we continued the threads of our conversation. Lewis also suggested that we take a look at Mark’s Gospel. We read a little passage each week and he’d ask me, “Who do you think Jesus is?” and “What are people’s responses to him?” Over time, I came to understand more about who Jesus is.
One thing that really struck me was Jesus’ wisdom. There’s no doubt he was a very wise man. When he was given a denarius and was asked, “Should we pay taxes to Caesar?”, I thought that his answer (“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”—Mark 12:17) was just topnotch.
Another thing that struck me was that Jesus was very confrontational. He made claims about who he was. He said he was going to die and rise three days later. I felt I had to make a decision about him: was this guy a wacko or was he telling the truth?
For a few months, I was uneasy and didn’t want to decide. Jesus lived 2,000 years ago; what did he have to do with me? But I also felt a sense of guilt because Jesus claimed I was a sinner. I knew I did bad things. I didn’t acknowledge God. However, I didn’t really understand what it meant that Jesus died for my sins.
Six or seven months after that first meeting with Lewis, I was on my way to university, waiting for the train and reading A Fresh Start by John ‘Chappo’ Chapman. Chappo tells a story about talking to some people who have just become Christians. One girl says to him, “I really find it hard to stop sinning”. Chappo replies, “I don’t … I find it impossible”.1 When I read that, I felt this enormous weight lift off my shoulders. I had thought that if I was sinful, I should respond by being good. But I could never be good enough because Jesus’ standard was perfection. That’s why Jesus came: to take the punishment for our sin. Soon after that, I became a Christian.
A few years later, someone asked me if I had considered doing full-time ministry. I hadn’t, but after praying about it, I thought I’d give it a go. I did a two-year traineeship and then enrolled at Moore College. I’m hoping to go into university ministry in the future.
Since becoming a Christian, I’ve done walk-up evangelism a number of times. I think we assume that people won’t respond positively when we talk about Christianity. But Australians are open to talking about it; whenever I go out, one in three or four people are willing to chat.
Before I met Lewis, whenever people approached me about Christianity, I found them rather annoying. But God still worked through that, leading me to say yes to Lewis. I had never had a strong Christian friend to tell me the gospel—I knew of Christians, but they weren’t my friends, so I didn’t interact with them—so if a Christian hadn’t come and talked to me about Jesus, I wouldn’t have become one.
There’s a lot of people out there in the same situation. So let me encourage you to not be afraid of being openly Christian, regardless of your circumstances. That’s how God wants us to be—lights shining in a dark world (Matt 5:14-16).
1. John Chapman, A Fresh Start, Matthias Media, Kingsford, 1997, p. 192-3.↩
