I met Andrew waiting at a bus stop in Kensington. He's a student studying the culinary arts.
Andrew's from a Roman Catholic background, but was eager to say that he is not currently practicing. When asked to provide some words to describe his religious background, he said, "Boring, irrelevant, & controlling."
"You didn't happen to attend catholic school, did you?" I asked.
"Yes."
"I'd probably use those same words myself."
When asked what one question would he ask God, he said that he didn't really believe in a god. I asked, "IF God exists, what would you want to ask him?"
Andrew nodded his head, and then pondered the question, and then said, "I don't really know."
"IF God exists and you were to stand before him when you die, and he asks, 'Why should I let you into heaven?' what would you say?"
"Because I was a good person," he said, and then quickly added, "but I don't really believe in a heaven."
I asked, "What do you believe in? What do you think happens when we die?"
"Well, I believe in reincarnation. I think we come back as different things."
"Can I ask you a question about that, Andrew?" He nodded in approval. "This is something I never been able to understand or figure out: Who gets to decide how you will come back? Who judges that?"
Andrew began to backpedal a bit & bristled at the idea of any sort of judgment. "Well, I don't really believe there is any kind of judgment. I just think that our energy and matter gets absorbed by the universe and is used for different things."
"Oh, okay. So you don't hold to a traditional understanding of reincarnation, then?"
"No," he replied.
I told him about my background as a philosophy major and seeing folks journey away from God and towards him.
"On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your goodness (with 1 being very evil, and 10 being very good)?"
He said, "About a seven."
So I gave him a booklet on Christianity that had the 10 Commandments listed by which he could test himself. I mentioned that it would give him some stuff to think about in light of his background. We chatted for a moment as I was mindful that the bus would arrive at any moment. I thanked him for the conversation, and as I walked away, I looked back over my shoulder and saw him reading about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Looking back on this, I wish I would have probed a bit deeper into his reasons for rejecting his Catholicism, since he has thrown Christianity out the window with that. But I knew the bus was coming and had probably taken that conversation as far as I could.
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Matthew 4:17, “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Lord, as Jesus preached repentance, would you grant repentance to Andrew?
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