During a conversation with my recently converted Hindu co-worker, we reached the point about Heaven and what happens in the next life. He told me that his religion gives him a great opportunity to do better in the next life through reincarnation. Basically, if he messes up this time around he is graciously given another shot at it. But before I continue this conversation let me give you a little history about my life.

I come from a small suburb of Oklahoma City in the Bible Belt of America. I grew up in the Church of Christ, went to High School and University at Church of Christ schools and everyone I knew shared the same faith. The religious question was not "what do you worship?" but "where do you worship?" I had never met an atheist.

Since arriving in Montreal over two years ago, I have come across many different religions and had several conversation with all sorts of people.  At my first job, I walked into a co-workers office and a book was sitting on her desk entitled something like "God is Dead."  It caught me off guard at first and I asked what that was all about and she told me she didn't believe in God. This was the first time I had ever heard anything like that in my life. I was caught off guard. I didn't know what to say.

I recently purchased a book online called "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist." In a moment of genius I decided to get the book delivered to my work, since I am there most of the day.  When the package came, I opened it up and left it on my desk for the rest of the day. My hindu coworker from earlier noticed the book and made a comment about it. I let the comment slide... this time.

After a few weeks my coworker made a comment about my book again. I had read about 150 pages and was ready to comment.  We started off by him telling my how he believes God is in stuff. The sky, grass, buildings, etc. I learned from my book that this is a common world view called Pantheism. We went on further in this direction but it left me wondering what he thought would happen to himself after death. After a brief Google search, he told me his "religion" has a reincarnation belief and he would get a second shot at this life and come back again as a cow or other animal or living thing. I asked him two questions that ultimately ended our conversation. The first was "If you don't have a God then who tells you how good you have to be" and the second was "What activity do you do as cow that is bad? Eat the wrong type of grass?" 

Looking back on the conversation I was pleased with how it went. There were parts I wish I had said something different, but it was, however, my first real religious conversation with a non-christian. I learned some interesting ideas that other people hold today and most importantly I learned some key things about myself. Right now I'm going to give you three of those.

The first thing this conversation taught me about myself is I have more confidence in my faith.  I may not have said the right things at the right times or known all the answers that he asked me, but I came out of it knowing more than when I went in.  Learning what others believe has also made me more confident in what I believe. When I hear about beliefs like reincarnation, everything is God, and there is no God, it builds my confidence in the one true God I have chosen to follow.

Another thing I learned from this conversation is that there is always more to learn.  In my first encounter with an atheist I had nothing to say. I didn't know the arguments. After reading a third of one book I was holding my ground with a Hindu. I build websites for a living. So recently I purchased another book to learn a new technique to building websites. So for a while, before the cow conversation, I was alternating between that web site book and the "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist" book. The web site book will help my career and there is nothing wrong with that, but it's not going to save souls of those I come in contact with. So in this decision I think I will finish my faith book first because there's always more to learn.

In the novel 'Fight Club' author Chuck Palahniuk writes about a group of men who start a fighting club in the basement of buildings around town. The leader of this group states to the crowd the three rules for the Fight Club.

•  You do not talk about Fight Club
•  You do not talk about Fight Club
•  You do not talk about Fight Club

Contrary to Fight Club we have been given a command to talk about God. Jesus commands us at the end of Matthew 28 "to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you..."

Which leads me to the third thing I learned from this conversation. And that is I want to share my faith more.  At the beginning of the cow conversation I was very nervous and shaking. I was stumbling in my answers and couldn't remember anything I had read. At one point I said a little prayer asking God to give me the right words, to be intelligent yet considerate and guess what happened?  I actually remembered something from my book and was able to make my co-worker think about the future he has chosen for himself as a cow. The best part about sharing your faith with a non-believer, or anybody for that matter is having God on your side.

And with God on your side you have more confidence in what you are saying, you can always learn more about Him through scripture, prayer or other religious materials, and lastly with God on your side you can share your faith easier knowing he is there with you.

So from that one conversation I learned that:

• I have more confidence in my faith
• There is always more to learn
• I need and want to share my faith more