The Easy Answer

Hard conversations.  I don't know about you, but I don't really like hard things...because they're hard.

I've found that a lot of times when I say something to a non-believer that is related to my faith, questions are asked, sometimes people get offended, and more often than not, I'm either left questioning myself or this whole "evangelism thing" which admittedly doesn't always seem to work out so well.

That's probably why the author in 1 Peter (Peter? Paul?) urges us to prepare our answers beforehand. "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." - 1 Peter 3:15, NIV

"Wait, so you think some dead guy just stopped being dead one day?"

"Really...you think someone got swallowed by a whale and lived? Whales eat plankton..."

"Of course I'm going to heaven, I'm a good person!"

"How can three different things (people?) all be one God?"

"You're crazy."

Well, in 2 Corinthians, Paul offers a cop-out. 

"If we are 'out of our minds,' as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right minds, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died." -2 Corinthians 5:13-14

Basically this says, "If you think I'm crazy, that's okay. God told me to say it. If you believe me, great! You can be saved. Either way I say what I say and I believe what I believe because I'm convinced that Christ died for us. So, yeah. There ya go. Universal answer."

It's in the bible, God said it, Paul said it, it's a valid option.

A bit of a disclaimer...

It's probably not a good idea to use this as your default response. Is it biblically valid? Yes. But is it the best answer we can give? Probably not, if you read your bible on the regular. What I've found is that exploring scripture on my own allows me to find answers to a lot of the more pressing theological questions. Knowing the answers equips me to respond in a way that directly addresses what the person asked. If they're asking from a genuine place, God is working in their hearts. Don't forfeit the opportunity to share the hope you have because you aren't prepared.

Obviously as humans we will never have all the answers. I'm not saying to memorize all the books of the bible word for word; the holy spirit has a large influence in these conversations as well. But regularly spending time in scripture builds your own understanding, and you'll find that you won't be able to stop yourself from sharing what you know with others.

So basically, I presented a cop-out easy answer to try to avoid answering hard questions with the purpose of demonstrating how the cop-out answer probably isn't the best option. But, it's nice to know that Paul "gets us," right?