Learning from mistakes

I could continue writing about evangelism from a theoretical and abstract perspective, but I realize that is only one way of learning. We can also learn from examples and even from mistakes. In this section, I want to share an evangelistic experience I had. Two years ago, I shared the gospel with a good friend of mine. There are some things that I did well, and some things I did poorly. Since I have had two years to reflect on this experience, I have often thought about how I could have done things better. The problem with evangelism is that we must share the gospel in real conversations, which are conducted in real time. It is hard to plan how and where a conversation will go, and sometimes we say foolish things or steer the conversation into unfruitful directions. We will be better off if we pray, lean on the Holy Spirit " s guidance, prepare our minds, and learn to think well on our feet. Please, learn from my experience, particularly my mistakes. I first met Mike 1 in 1995 when we were both students at Brandeis University. It was the toward the end of my freshman year and his sophomore year. We were both interested in sports journalism; he wrote for the campus paper and I started working for the campus radio station. We were both covering an early spring baseball game. Over the next two years, we spent some time together as Mike occasionally worked for the radio station. I can " t recall that we spent a lot of time hanging out as students at Brandeis, but after he graduated, we became good friends. I think it happened simply because I was one of the people from college who kept in touch with him. Sometimes, simply keeping in touch with someone and caring for how he or she is doing is enough to forge a lifelong friendship. Over the years, Mike and stayed in touch, as the paths of our lives diverged and, occasionally, converged. He moved to Connecticut, then Europe for a year. I moved to Austin, Texas for graduate school. For a time, he was particularly nomadic, moving every year or even every few months. At one point, he decided he wanted to consider living in Austin. He visited me twice before making that decision, and then later he moved into my apartment for …