I hear this kind of thing a lot, “You’re a decent writer, but when are you gonna shut up about the God stuff.”

What’s up with Christians anyway? Why are we always trying to “convert” people? Why don’t we just mind our own business and let people who aren’t really hurting anyone else alone.

I’ll tell you why. We don’t really care about anything nearly as much as we care about God. People—family, friends, co-workers, roommates, etc. run a close second to our feelings for Jesus Christ.

Following this logic, we’d like to do what we can to reconcile the two—God and Man.

We know about something, we have something, that we know many around us don’t have—a relationship with the Creator. We understand both our significance in the universe and our lowly stature in comparison to God. We understand the need for a relationship with God although we can never measure up.

We also understand that the only thing that makes a relationship with a Holy God possible is accepting the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in place of our sins.

Oh great, here he goes again. I realize readers are probably making faces right now like they’ve just smelled something bad. Tough.

Look. God, Heaven, Hell, all of this stuff is every bit as real as your tuition bill, so deal with the issues. You can’t rationalize away reality.

Sorry, I think I smell some fire and brimstone coming on. I’m not really sure what brimstone is. I think it was one of the answers on my Geology test.

How do people even go through life with some muddy perception of eternity? Do they even wrestle with these issues?

What do you suppose you could learn in your textbooks, on Melrose Place or on the 10 o’clock news that’ll make one iota of difference when you’re stiff in a box six feet under?

Was that a bit morbid? Maybe, but not to me. I know where I’m going. I also know that where I’m going has nothing to do with my lifestyle, actions or that I’m a white Anglo-Saxon heterosexual male with conservative political beliefs.

I also know what my purpose in life is—to serve God with the talents He’s given me. Sure I want a family, career, friends and all that jazz, but they’re minor considerations.

There are a lot of Christians on this campus, faculty members, coaches, students, etc. who could tell you these things much more eloquently than I, but I’m the one God gave a column to so this is best you’ll get here.

Maybe I don’t sound particularly happy when I write about God, but perhaps I can better explain my attitude. You see, it’s rather recently that I accepted Christ. Most of my friends, family and fellow students have not.

Christians are concerned about people’s souls, as suspicious as that may sound. We’re upset that people reject the opportunity for a relationship with God. We want everyone to have that relationship and so does God.

So why don’t I shut up if no one wants to hear it?

There’s a prophet in the Old Testament named Jeremiah, whom I’d hardly compare myself to, but it’s a good example. God told Jeremiah to keep telling the people about Him and that he was angry with Israel. Nobody wanted to hear it.

They call him the “weeping prophet” because he cared about his countrymen, but he knew God was about to punish them and that they deserved it.

For his brief stint on earth, compared to eternity, he preached God’s word faithfully despite all opposition. He had no friends, no family, was arrested and beaten.

I’m luckier many respects, I’ve got friends and family even those who think I’m a Bible-slinging wacko, but thanks to a the protagonist of the New Testament I can still carry out the Lord’s work without being a famous prophet and I’ll take my chances.