The One Thing We Can’t Talk About

The One Thing We Can’t Talk About
His name was Ed and he liked to talk.

The administrator down the hall was one of those guys. He had a story for every situation. He’d been everywhere. He’d done everything. Ed had driven trucks for 12 years. He ran a pool hall for six years. He served as a hunting outfitter for four years and had been in
his current job for 21 years. When I did the math, he was well north of 80 years old — but I never challenged him on it. No need to ruin a good story.
One day I was having coffee with him and I mentioned that my Life Group at church was talking through some interesting discoveries, that the cosmos and the world around us suddenly weren’t so small. He put up a hand to my face. “Not gonna go there,” he said sternly. “Can’t be talking about that stuff.”

Here’s a man that talk about just about anything and anyone, but he simply was afraid to walk down the path that a simple conversation about God might take him.

This scene is often replicated in today’s society in one way or another. We can talk about our kids, our grand kids, our parents and our weird Uncle Al, but we can’t talk about the Father. We can talk about history, places we’ve been been and plans for the weekend, but we can’t talk about eternity. We can talk about what we think about politics, the workplace and the community, but we can’t talk about the King

Today’s Christians are in a quandary. We know the divine imperative to live out our faith and we understand that living out our faith involves talking about our faith. Hiding who we are goes against our calling. So, just what are we supposed to do?

Many of us try to walk the middle ground by dropping non caustic code words like “higher power” and “faith.” We display cozy spiritual things on our desks like rainbows and angels. But they fall short because they don’t do a thing to help improve the human condition of those around us. Eventually, we have to talk about it.

Even though Ed didn’t to talk about it then, eventually he did. 
You can’t keep a good story to yourself.

Please, share with a friend if you feel moved.
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