"Best Bible Study Ever".... or so one of my sport-faith biathletes exclaimed. Actually I kind of thought it was humorous and ironic. The study was simply a series of questions, most pertaining to finding purpose and meaning. Here’s some of them: "what makes you happy? What does your soul crave? In what ways do you think this craving affects your life?.....your time, $, relationships, etc.? Do you think people in general long to have their lives count in making a positive difference around them?" I guess it wasn’t so much the questions themselves but more in the fact that myself and their teammates were listening intently as they shared and bared what really was in the deepest part of their soul.
One of the lessons I wanted my ski and gun toting cadre to grasp is that people yearn to be listened to. So many evangelistic attempts fail because no one likes to be told they’re wrong and need to change. Perhaps even the major offense to Jesus’ claim to be the only way to the Father is the verdict of sin the gospel message brings. Again, no one like to be told they’re wrong....or sinful. So if my biathlon friends, or all of us, asked some decent, relevant questions and listened...really listened, I mean really listened, then maybe we could help our friends actually come to some decent God conclusions on their own.
