Today I had the privilege of helping a friend shake hands with Jesus. Shaking hands is what you do when you meet someone for the first time. This 30 something friend of mine works for our company and has for several months. We’ve recently been talking about who he is and where he’s headed. Ultimately he shared with me that he knew about God, but that God wasn’t necessarily relevant in his daily life, and that his knowledge of God wasn’t personal—there was no relationship. You can’t have a relationship with someone you’ve never met, and you can’t have a relationship with God unless someone helps you understand how to do that. So, he and I are working on that together. But the first meeting has taken place. It did so this morning in my conference room.

This got me to thinking. What do you believe? Do you believe anything strongly enough that you think other people ought to believe it? If not, then, I’d posit that you really don’t believe.

It’s become almost a requirement in our culture that we not foist our beliefs on one another. Where’d that come from? Wasn’t America founded by people who had strong beliefs…..”We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal,” that was a foundational belief. Seems to me like the early patriots risked it all because of what they believed, and that they worked like the dickens to convince others to adopt their views.

What do you believe so strongly that you’d try to persuade someone else to adopt that belief? Surely there’s something. Politically. Philosophically. Morally. Spiritually.

If there’s nothing you believe so strongly that you’d try to persuade someone else to adopt your view, then, what does that indicate? That you are superior because you aren’t pushing your beliefs on someone else? Or, that you aren’t thoughtful enough to have sorted through things and developed a framework of belief about various things? Or, that you don’t care enough about your friends to persuade them to adopt your beliefs (they are better, aren’t they? If not, why don’t you trade them in for better beliefs?).

Quit taking up space. Make a difference. The world needs you.