I have atheist friends. Even my brother is one. I've seen people talk about how God doesn't want you to hang around atheists, but these are good friends to me. And how can I just cut off my own brother, the bible even has stuff about never abandoning your family. And if the whole purpose of being a christian is to spread the word of God, then who needs it more than somebody who doesn't have God in their lives. My brother is dating a christian girl, so I have hope that he'll listen to her, but I still want to help. As for my atheist friends, I only have like four. But I still want to help them as well. How can I?
When I was lost in the world and was devoid of truth, there was a young blind woman named Mary in our apartment complex who was considered a weirdo, a real outcast in our neighborhood. Everyone, including me, didn't want to be seen near her because that just wouldn't look cool, ya know? She wasn't exactly what the world would call a beauty and she talked aloud to Jesus as if he was always walking with her and her little doggie. I thought she might even be crazy.
But she kept turning up in the laundry room when I would wash my clothes. And I'd hear her conversation with the Lord and her praise of Him. One thing she had that I never saw before: real joy. She wasn't faking it and I knew that for a fact. I began to watch her and eventually began to speak to her and ask questions about this Jesus she talked to. I didn't know him. I heard about him, but I had no idea who he was.
She never tried to force scripture or her beliefs on me. She just answered my questions and best of all, she became a friend to me. She was kind. She was funny. She was real. And she didn't apologize about her intimacy with Christ, she just included me in on her life with him. I got jealous, in a good way. I wanted what she had but I couldn't grasp it.
Hanging around with her long enough brought me to the end of myself. One day I ran to her place in tears, threw myself on the floor at her feet and begged for the Jesus she had. She laughed and told me it was Jesus who was calling me to him all along.
That was the day my eyes were first open to Jesus. And it was all because God used Mary's real relationship with him to get my attention. And that's how you can help your friends. Let them see Jesus alive in you.
