Sometimes Stories are Hard to Hear

The impulse is to close our eyes to the hurt around us. The first reaction is to turn the channel, think of something more exciting, or more comfortable. It can be difficult to hear some stories. How do we handle stories that are vastly different from our own? What about when someone voices an opinion drastically different from your own?

Sometimes the best foundation for relationship is just listening, especially when the goal is forming relationships in order to have opportunity to invest in a life- not just preach at someone. One of our main goals at the FireEscape youth ministry is to build relationships with youth, some of whom are unchurched, in order to more meaningfully connect them with Christ.
Some of the subjects of the interviews conducted at the FireEscape expressed opinions that went completely against what I hold to be true. I did not try to interject my faith as I asked students about theirs, but as a result of the interviews conversations arose about God that night. I was able to share some truths about God and Christianity. Here are a few more of the interviews from that night. I'm convinced, in my humble opinion, that there is no room for judging these teens- but that we must ask ourselves if we are doing enough to share Christ's love and message of hope with the people around us who believe much the same way these young people do.


Mia described himself as a transgender. He did not seem nervous and was eager to talk. I asked him,"What do you believe?" He looked around a moment before answering, "I’m not a religious person, I have my own Bible, but I think religion is overrated. Religion can be confusing to me. When I was around 12 years old I really started thinking about faith." He looked at me and said,  "Most of my family is very religious. My Grandma was religious, she had pictures of Jesus and crosses everywhere. If you didn’t believe like she did you were going to hell."Some of his friends were seated there around us, they had also agreed to be interviewed. He said, "I have a few friends that believe in God- they’re not big advocates of their faith."

Scott Wheeles was one of the people sitting there waiting to be interviewed. He was ready to talk without much prompting with questions. He leaned forward in his chair and said, "I don’t believe in anything; I’m an atheist." I asked him how he came to believe that way and he said, "I was thinking too much, came to alot of conclusions to why it just can’t be. I talk about faith alot, I like to argue about it and I’ve been known to stump people in conversations." He began to relate some of his perspectives on why he doesn't believe in God. I could tell that he liked a good argument, but not wanting to be drawn in I asked if he also rejected belief in anything supernatural. He said with conviction, "I’ve had experiences that make me believe in the supernatural but I reject religion." He talked for a moment about his experiences and then I asked about his family's beliefs. He admitted,  "There was a point that I related to the religion of my grandpa. I was a mormon before I became an atheist. I think other religions have similarities to Christianity. I think other Christianity branched off from other religions. I believe they’re all the same- they’re all just changing the rules." I wanted to move on to the other people who had told me they were willing to be interviewed, even though Scott was still willing to talk and argue his point. I'm sure more conversations will come up and I even mentioned to Scott that many of us volunteers would be willing to talk to him more about whether or not God exists, if he wanted to talk more with us.

Do the people around you believe much the same way as the you, or are there major differences? Is it daunting to think about what some of those differences would be if you began talking with others about their faith?

Photo by Kira Stevens