apologetics in the real world

As I was wrapping up the Apologetics course I was working on last month, I had the opportunity to meet a new international student face-to-face for the first time. We had been introduced via email, as he is brand new to the States. He is at UNO currently, wrapping up an intensive English program (I thought his English was quite good), and will be moving into a graduate program at Tulane next month.

He asked me what I do, and that led to some discussion of religion and Christianity. As he began to understand what it is that I do (pastor/missionary to college students, plus some other stuff...), he asked if I talk to people who are not Christians about religion. I said, "That's one of my favorite things to do," which is 100% true. I love every opportunity to explain a little or a lot about Jesus and his Good News to people who don't yet know.

So, as we continue to dialogue, my current studies in apologetics comes up, and he asks me if I could share with him some thoughts that argue toward the belief in/reality of God. It turns out, he had to write a paper about the existence of God for his English class (I guess that would stretch your vocabulary a bit.), and growing up in China, he had NEVER heard an argument for the existence of God!

I was blown away by this opportunity to share some ideas very close to my heart with a new acquaintance (soon to be friend). I shared with him just two of my favorite theistic arguments, and he was fairly excited about them - it's always fun to meet someone truly interested in learning new things, encountering meaningful new ideas. We talked about the conundrum of the origins of life, and the moral argument. Of course, none of these arguments 'prove' the existence of God. They are merely openings into the pursuit of non-materialist knowledge, and possibly echoes of another world (to borrow an idea from C.S. Lewis, and a term from N.T. Wright).

Who would have thought an apologetics class would have such simple and direct usefulness in the real world?