Day 67, Conversations that Change Us: Predestination

Sunday night a good friend of mine who is a West Point Graduate, and Battery Commander (Pretty Sharp dude) said, "Hey, I have got a question for you...What do you think about predestination?" Now, in many circles this would be resolved with two likely responses.
1. "Well, I think we should just leave those doctrines that divide the churches alone and focus on what really matters."
2. "Well, I have never really nailed down what I believe and thus will continue talking to eventually change the subject."

I chose neither.

I could tell that he had really been thinking about this. This was not one of those 'stump the chump' questions. I smiled and decided I would let him fill out the question and talk his way through it. As he did so, I would smile and put a guard rail or would give him what various views were. His eyes widened as he just began to have a huge dialogue with himself. I could tell his conversation was shaking and solidifying some ideas. I said very little.

I smiled at the end of his self discovery. This conversation had shaped his thinking. I just was able to watch it happen in front of me.

Bottomline: Sometimes we can just be the quiet one and sometimes we need to be teacher. I am always humbled though when God begins to reveal Scripture to people and they have that "AH-HA!" moment right in front of me.

***Now what are my feelings about 'Predestination' you may ask yourself. My answer is simple. It took about 6 years to come to my convictions about it. It all started with a conversation with a guy named Paul, in Romans 9. I was 23 years old. I had a huge conversation with myself and God for 6 years.