Acts 17:22-23, “Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus [Mars Hill] and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.”

 

What was Paul doing in Athens anyway? Let me explain; he had been run out of the last town he was speaking in and was waiting for his mates to come and get him. In the mean time he was out and about walking the city, tourist map in one hand and a digital camera in the other.

 

He was waiting for his friends and in the process he was out finding coffee shops, wine bars and restaurants for lunch. He was doing the tourist thing in Athens! Paul was taking the time to get out a bit more. And just by the way found himself at Mar’s Hill engaging a group of philosophers about the “Unknown God!”

So many of us stay home or hang out with other Christians. When we do get it out it’s on the way to work or school and we try so hard to be invisible. We’ve been taught to keep your religious views to yourself or that we need to become flaming evangelists armed with tract about God, hell and eternal flames.

 

The more we disengage from the world around us the more our passion for the lost is blunted. When we limit our exposure to the world around us our zeal to see people connect with eternity is dulled and our fervour to reach people is reduced and our voice to the world becomes muted! We need to get out more if we want God’s love of people to characterise our lives. 

I love people watching. I sit in cafes, train station and airports and just look. But we’ll need to do more than that; we need to get out more and see people walking around. We need to start conversations with people and connect with them. People need to see and hear that we are different and are of a different spirit. I don’t mean we need to be out spoken, verging on the fanatic; but we do need to let people know there is something different about us; we have a living relationship with God.

I admit that communication in a 21^st Century context is elaborate, if we seek to truly touch our world we will need to understand the world we live in so we can speak to it. Some couldn’t be bothered to learn or to connect with today.