Keep it to Yourself

Weirdly enough, this note was not in the list or even in my activity log. I was pretty sure I posted it, though. I remember rechecking this a few days ago. Anyway, reposting it with some addiitions for keep's sake.

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I would appreciate it if you kept to yourself your “keep it to yourself.” Frankly, you are a hypocrite. Don’t impose on others, you say. But am I wrong to say that you are imposing on me? You impose on me your belief that I shouldn’t impose on others.

But you see, there is no such thing as neutral. Those “neutral” things you love to hear and say – music, and all those inspirational quotes – all of them show who you are and what you believe in. Every word you say, every advice you give, every little thing you do signifies who you are.

If talk enthusiastically about plants it shows how much I like plants, and if I don’t talk enthusiastically about dogs it shows how much I don’t like dogs. Should I then hide who I am and not talk about God? I’d be a selfish fool to do that!

If I discovered unlimited bread that won’t make you go hungry, will I keep it to myself? If I found unlimited water that won’t make me go thirsty, will I keep it to myself? Is it right to keep what is not mine? Will I not tell my sweetheart, “come and eat!”? Yes, I will lead her to that spring of water. How much more then should I tell everyone how good my God is!

So you who tell me “keep it to yourself,” and not only avoid talking about religion but even impede others from doing so are not being neutral at all. You can dish out moral advices agreeing with our Bible; but if you leave out God it’s not quite the same at all, because to us, Christ makes all the difference.

If it is torturous to you to listen to us, don’t you think it also torturous to us to listen to godless advices? Yet no one says to secularism, “stop, I don’t want to hear you any longer.” People like to listen to what they want to hear, and that’s exactly why we both need to listen to what we don’t want to hear.

Keep yours to yourself, but I won’t. You may believe me, and you may not. But I won’t stop sharing this joy that I have. I’d be a selfish fool to do that.