We will also have conversations with the pragmatic agnostics whose numbers seem to be increasing in our culture. These are people who have accepted the secularist culture of our age and would quite honestly ask the question, “Who needs God?”
With such people we need to be prepared to accept the fact that we are the sower of the seeds and not the one who gives growth to the plant. Our task is not to win an argument but to speak out of our own experience. We are not nearly as accurate in speaking to why someone else needs God as we are in speaking about our needs and our experience.
Even before that, we come as Christ came, seeking to genuinely meet the needs of the needy simply because they are needy. We do not need to conquer the infidel. We do need to understand that God may well use our witness of kindness, patience, joy, etc. to prepare the ground by which God might work faith in that person’s life at a later time. By our willingness to share what we experience and also to carefully listen to what the other person has experienced, we may be able to open up a conversation from which we might both benefit.
