Explaining Yourself

Tonight, I ate dinner with my friend George. George is a minister from South Africa. A great thinker, George is able to make things simple without simplifying. It dawned on me as we sat down to eat dinner and watch North Carolina vs Clemson, that I don't know how in the world I would explain basketball (or baseball or football for that matter) to George. At least, explain it in a meaningful way.

George had seen basketball before so he was "roughly familiar."

Imagine trying to explain three seconds, double bonus, what constitutes a foul and what is simply good defense, or zone vs. man-to-man defense. Or, try explaining the infield fly rule to someone who'd never seen baseball (what's an out? What the difference between a pop-up and a grounder?) Or, try explaining the "first down system" to someone who's never witnessed (American) football.

I remember trying to figure our cricket when I was training for a triathlon at a nearby park. I was dumbfounded.

Sometimes, when I'm talking to someone who knows very little about Christianity, I feel like I do when I am explaining a foreign sport. I realize that all of my analogies, metaphors, and connecting points are biased based upon my years among "church culture." I'm grateful the story of Jesus comes to us in, well, story form . . . the story carries the weight. Thank goodness, God didn't give us a bullet point list of doctrines. Rather, a story in which we all can find our plot in a plotless world.