The best pizza is chocolate. According to Brazilians that is. In Brazil there are these pizza restaurants where waiters come around non-stop serving a smorgasbord of pizza slices. What kind of pizza you decide to eat is a difficult job for the pizza eater. Shall it be the “palm tree” pizza, or the banana pizza, or the beloved chocolate pizza…or…? It can be quite dizzying all the options. My experience of Brazilians is that they chose the best until the last, chocolate of course. These restaurants are great eating experiences. Somehow it makes me think of how people like to dab here and there into a spiritual smorgasbord of goodies. Even Christians can jump from one spiritual experience to another. It would be a tragedy if I just experienced two TREK’s ('STM' to Brazil and DRC) and all that happened in my life was just experiencing some new "cool experiences". That would be wrong. A near sin.
I really think that atheism is becoming dead. Ever since the Iron Curtain fell, atheism has been falling fast after it. The youth I interacted with in the Czech Republic last summer were not atheistic. I would say many of them were agnostic. Yup, there is a “God-shaped hole” in all of us. But how do we fill that hole up? Like Brazilian pizza eaters, people nowadays seem to like to nibble here, take a bite there, into a little bit of everything. And leave the crust. Brazilian pizza eaters leave behind heaps of crust.
What if Jesus is like chocolate pizza? Brazilian pizza eaters would wait for the “best until last”, and eat chocolate last. But why wait for that? I should go for it. Jump right into Jesus as soon as possible - today. Why wait for tomorrow, the best is here for me today. I really don’t understand why many Christians, in their attempts to share Jesus with others, don’t know where to begin. And sometimes Christians think they have things all figured out, and share all these formulas, all these step-by-step instructions to follow, and then you are a Christian. Say this little prayer, repeat this now, memorize that, and voila! I am Christian. I am trying to understand how Christians, everyday Christians, workplace Christians, university Christians, really share their faith in Jesus to others. If you want to convince someone to watch one of your favourite movies, you tell them only a little bit about the movie, perhaps a tease about the plot and story, perhaps some of the star actors. Then you just simply say; “Man, it was so good!! You gotta see it too!!”. Isnt it the same with sharing Jesus to others in this spiritual smorgasbord culture? “Man, you gotta meet this Jesus. He is amazing!” Christians do not save others. It is our job as disciples of Jesus to point others to the best. What if Jesus was like chocolate pizza? Because the best pizza is chocolate.