"I'm not going to make this a religious issue"

"I don't talk about religion"

"It would be best to avoid talking about religious things"

"There are two things you should never talk about at the dinner table, religion and politics"

The following statements are just a few of many different ways that people often avoid spiritual matters. My question for those who make such statements is, what role does your faith have in your life that you can avoid talking about it? Should not our faith be the lens that we see the whole world through?

Could you imagine asking  a person about their family and their response being something like, "I'm sorry I don't discuss such things"? Such a response would be admittedly absurd, yet Jesus tells us very clearly that whoever loves their family more than Him is not worthy of Him (Matt 10:37). So how is it we would never avoid talking about our family, but we avoid the one who rightfully reigns supreme in our lives over any other person?

After Jesus tells us we should love Him more than anyone else, He then very clearly says, "follow Me" (Matt 10:38). If we, as professing Christians, are following Jesus and have a thriving relationship with Him, then how absurd would it be to have a pesonal policy that we never talk about how we live and who we love first and foremost? Yet this is common in an upside down American "Christian" culture and to talk about spiritual things is considered inappropriate and offensive in many settings. Wow, Really!?! God's greatest act of love, mercy, and redemption (John 3:16) has become inappropriate to speak about and is against many people's list of acceptable topics to discuss.

What gets really interesting is that it's not always atheists or those of different belief systems that have a problem talking about Him but most often professing "Christians" who are so adamantly against talking about the One they claim to follow. In other countries people of different spiritual backgrounds are genuinely intrigued by talking about Christianity and other belief systems than their own. Even many atheists and agnostics are genuinely curious about other's views about Jesus. So why are those that associate with Christianity often some of the most opposed to talking about it? I think it's insecurity. They have a boxed up faith that has wrapping, ribbon, and a bow on top that looks really pretty when it comes up in small doses. However, there's nothing inside the box so when people start talking too long about their pretty box so to speak, they get really uncomfortable because they don't want to be exposed that it's empty.

Could this not be more telling of a person's spiritual bankruptcy that they avoid talking about it at all costs? People can talk about cars, jobs, money, children, other people, minute details of one's day but they have absolutely no room for the awesome and wondrous God who lovingly created us all and to which we must all one day give an account. The greatest news ever that Jesus came and died for our sins and rose again so that all who trust in Him might have eternal life and it often gets put on the back shelf to be avoided in conversation at all costs.

Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matt 12:34). What do we find ourselves talking about most in our day to day lives? Is it not safe to say that we love to talk about the things we love and in contrast that we have little interest or time for talking about things that are of no interest to us? No wonder the Bible has so much to say about testing one's faith, discerning if it is legitimate, and examples of great multitudes of those whose faith at first glance seemed legitimate but in reality couldn't have been more spurious.

As I bring this to a close, I would propose that even if topics about faith cause division in what people believe, even if they are uncomfortable and expose our ignorance.... there is nothing of greater value and eternal significance that will impact us than talking about God and the gift of His Son as laid out in His Holy Word.