I spent saturday in Memphis visiting an old friend. Even after more than 25 years, catching up and 'feeling' the friendship wasn't hard at all to do. We met in our late teens and went through a lot of our christian struggles together. His life arc since then bears a lot of resemblance to mine (in loving the Lord, and losing that love and falling away, etc.), so much of what he was telling me about I instantly connected with.
Though he'd done a lot of coursework in various seminaries in his younger years, he just recently 'finished' his MA in Religion, mainly so he could tick that off his list of things to do. I had the oppurtunity to share what I've been learning. It wasn't difficult for me, really. The difficulty came from him having to parse what I was saying through whatever 'doctrinal' position he was familiar with. For instance, when I told him I thought 'free-will' was a myth and a delusion, you could almost see the wheels turing as he tried to lump me in with Calvinists. Oddly, he was the one who first introduced me to the concept as he embraced it for a while in his 'spiritual' search. I had to remind him that this had been the case.
He has a 'liberal' view of scripture itself, and for me to say that I believed in 'inerrancy' in the orginal languages but NOT in the 'interpretations' of Christian doctrine I think left him a little confused. I don't think he had a 'box' for that.
Anyways, I was able to 'preach' but didn't press, and able to 'answer' without 'selling' and able to leave him with both an uncompromised 'gospel' and a continued friendship. I believe he has (and has always had) a thirst and hunger for the truth. He himself has been persecuted in babylon for this. In many ways early on, he 'led' me. It is a bit strange to find myself more at peace than he is. If you can think of it, please pray for Larry.
I don't get out much, so this was a real treat for me. Some of you may do things like this all the time. Others may seldom get the oppurtunity. I'm glad I was able to 'do' as we've so often 'advised' from Ray's example and scriptural admonition.