Thus began my friendship with Carrie. Carrie’s sorority sister, Jamie, was interested in starting some spiritual discussions with her sister. While Carries was interested in religion and exploring the deeper questions of life, she despised hypocrisy and was jaded by several folks from various Christian communities. She had a working knowledge of Scripture, was as sharp as a tack, but recently came off of a winning bout with brain cancer and had several deep questions of how God could allow such terrible things to happen to her?
Over the last two years, I’ve learned that students today first need to find people that they are able to trust before they can be confronted with issues of truth.
Carrie, Jamie and I began by looking together at mini-biographies of several influential Christians in history-Martin Luther King, Dr. Robert Coles, G.K. Chesterton and others. One week we got to two Russian authors: Leo Tolstoy and Feodor Dostoevsky.
My prior meeting with Carrie and Jamie was difficult to say the least. I had to challenge Carrie’s beliefs, and while it was not easy, we had enough of a trusting relationship where we weren’t afraid to disagree. But nonetheless tears were shed, and I left wondering if she would return. I arrived for my regular meeting with Carrie and Jamie slightly early, sat in my booth, and prayed that Carrie would show up with a willingness to continue her journey in finding faith.
I opened my eyes-and there was Carrie! She sat down and pointed to a section of the text regarding the lives of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, “We are all desperate, and that is in fact the only state appropriate to a human being who wants to know God. Having fallen from the absolute ideal, as Tolstoy did, we have nowhere to land but with Dostoevsky, in the safety net of absolute grace. Carrie said, “I’m done running-I need to understand grace.” We talked and she said that she wanted to follow Jesus. Jamie was overjoyed and I left the appointment with tears in my eyes.’
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The Greek IV story was shared by Andy Bilhorn Author Website: http://andybilhorn.wordpress.com/ Author Email: Contact Author Author Bio: Andy joined staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in 2003 at Northwestern University, and serves our various ministries to nearly 300 students in various capacities throughout his time. He has traveled the world, and helped students see Jesus in the most unlikely of places, all the while growing deeper in his relationship with God in seeing his purposes for the whole world to be restored to it’s good intent. More Stories by Andy Bilhorn |
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This post is tagged Evangelism, lives transformed, Sorority
