Afraid To Discuss God With My Friend

[racheous792]

Hi there everyone,
Thanks for taking a look at my post! I feel like the Lord has put it on my heart to discuss Christianity with one of my close friends who is a practicing Wiccan.
To add some background information, my dear friend and I went to the same parochial school/we both received the sacraments of Baptism and First Communion. Although she has always had a fascination with Ouija boards and ghosts/horror films, she became a practicing Wiccan around the time we entered high school (our high school was public). She didn’t really enjoy the school that we went to so that may have had something to do with it.
We have had a few in depth discussions about her beliefs in the past and she has thanked me for being so tolerant/open minded (I honestly found that I appreciated a few aspects that pretained to numerous pagan belief systems such as their great admiration for nature). However these discussions took place during a period where I had fallen away from my Catholic faith so I definitely wouldn’t have politely disagreed with her opinions at the time.
Although I am still as tolerant of other people’s beliefs as ever, I keep getting this overwhelming urge to talk to her about God and tell her that Jesus loves her with all His Heart! Although I am open about being Catholic, I am terrified to start a conversation that sounds like I am trying to evangelize her (she has never tried to force her beliefs on me and is never saying anti-Catholic remarks so I’d feel a bit odd trying to evangelize her).
If anyone could offer some advice/opinions, I’d really appreciate it. God Bless!!!

 

[mjs2001]

I think that you should tell her what’s on your heart. It is coming from love. Hopefully, she will have the grace to see that. I wouldn’t, however, expect her to change, and she might even be offended. Put you might plant a seed that bears fruit years from now.

 

[JohnGerard]

Hi there everyone,
Thanks for taking a look at my post! I feel like the Lord has put it on my heart to discuss Christianity with one of my close friends who is a practicing Wiccan.
To add some background information, my dear friend and I went to the same parochial school/we both received the sacraments of Baptism and First Communion. Although she has always had a fascination with Ouija boards and ghosts/horror films, she became a practicing Wiccan around the time we entered high school (our high school was public). She didn’t really enjoy the school that we went to so that may have had something to do with it.
We have had a few in depth discussions about her beliefs in the past and she has thanked me for being so tolerant/open minded (I honestly found that I appreciated a few aspects that pretained to numerous pagan belief systems such as their great admiration for nature). However these discussions took place during a period where I had fallen away from my Catholic faith so I definitely wouldn’t have politely disagreed with her opinions at the time.
Although I am still as tolerant of other people’s beliefs as ever, **I keep getting this overwhelming urge to talk to her about God and tell her that Jesus loves her with all His Heart! **Although I am open about being Catholic, I am terrified to start a conversation that sounds like I am trying to evangelize her (she has never tried to force her beliefs on me and is never saying anti-Catholic remarks so I’d feel a bit odd trying to evangelize her).
If anyone could offer some advice/opinions, I’d really appreciate it. God Bless!!!

Hey racheous,

If you did do the part I bolded in your post above, do you think that would be a good thing or a bad thing? To tell someone that Jesus loves them?

I think that would be an awesome thing. And the overwhelming urge you keep feeling could be the Holy Spirit nudging you!

And you can still be friends and compare beliefs and whatever and through your friendship, who knows? I have a similar situation with a friend of mine who is very much into Eastern religions and thinks that she was reincarnated. She and I have great conversations even though we don’t agree on much, we listen to each other and explain what we each believe and who knows?

 

[Antegin]

The Spirit may be speaking to and through you.

Were you ever told by your Mom that it was impolite to talk about religion? I was. I think Mom was wrong.

It’s time for Faith and Religion to come out of the closet!

Let the Spirit guide you and proclaim the gospel with joy.

 

[Trident_H]

Hi there everyone,
Thanks for taking a look at my post! I feel like the Lord has put it on my heart to discuss Christianity with one of my close friends who is a practicing Wiccan.
To add some background information, my dear friend and I went to the same parochial school/we both received the sacraments of Baptism and First Communion. Although she has always had a fascination with Ouija boards and ghosts/horror films, she became a practicing Wiccan around the time we entered high school (our high school was public). She didn’t really enjoy the school that we went to so that may have had something to do with it.
We have had a few in depth discussions about her beliefs in the past and she has thanked me for being so tolerant/open minded (I honestly found that I appreciated a few aspects that pretained to numerous pagan belief systems such as their great admiration for nature). However these discussions took place during a period where I had fallen away from my Catholic faith so I definitely wouldn’t have politely disagreed with her opinions at the time.
Although I am still as tolerant of other people’s beliefs as ever, I keep getting this overwhelming urge to talk to her about God and tell her that Jesus loves her with all His Heart! Although I am open about being Catholic, I am terrified to start a conversation that sounds like I am trying to evangelize her (she has never tried to force her beliefs on me and is never saying anti-Catholic remarks so I’d feel a bit odd trying to evangelize her).
If anyone could offer some advice/opinions, I’d really appreciate it. God Bless!!!

Hey Racheous. Ok. So you’ve got some advice before mine. And I mean I’m not really the steadiest guy around to take advice from so maybe they’re right in this. Because sharing good news is always a nice idea. It doesn’t come around much.

But here’s the thing. If she’d come to you yesterday and said, “Hey Racheous. I’m feeling strongly that you should join our coven.” You’d probably have a different thread title here. One about how to politely distance yourself from a friend involved in witchcraft. So please understand a thing about evangelizing. It’s all about the timing. And all about where to put the message.

You can’t kick her door down and proclaim the good news like that. I mean it’s not just that it’s not really polite. It’s also that it might drive her too far to reach later. Look. It’s like catching gophers. If you stick your arm down the hole you’ll never get one. You’ve got to wait for the right second. You’ve got to have that bit of twine with a loop on the end. And sit far away. And then time it just right. Just right to pounce when they’re off their guard. Yank that cord at just the right moment. Because otherwise you’ll just end up going home hungry.

Ok. I did that on purpose. I mean no one eats gophers. But now you won’t forget what I said either. You see. That’s how you get your message home. You dress it up like something else. Then you slip it in. I mean if I started this answer to you saying I was going to tell you how to make gopher stew you probably would’ve just skipped it. Just like your friend would skip a message gotten out of order about Jesus wanting her to drop everything she’s used to doing and suddenly follow Him.

So it’s all about timing. And it’s about installing the message to the best effect. It’s all about the soft sell. And it’s really about the relationship you’ve already got. I mean if you can love her where she’s at. If you can keep your communication flowing. You’ve always got a way to slowly build up the pressure. To be there when she needs you. To offer to pray for her. To let her know then that she’d be welcome to come visit the church. And to slowly bring her home.

Because if you yank the reigns of the donkey it’ll stall out on you. But if you just lead at a gentle steady pace it’ll come. Maybe slowly. But it’ll come.

Peace Racheous. I mean if you want to know exactly how to do it you’ll have to give me more specific details about your relationship. What you guys talk about. Where she’s at in her spirituality. How often you guys meet. And how close of friends you really are. Then I’d want to know what kind of personality’s she’s got. And stuff. So yeah. A long story.

Otherwise you’ve just got to stick with your instincts on this one. I mean she’s your friend. How would you tell her anything else that might have to be wormed in unnoticed at first?

-Trident

-Trident