A guy told me that Jesus loves me.

Last night, while I walked the dog, a guy pulled over near me, rolled down his window, and told me "Jesus Loves You." I didn't feel like engaging in the conversation at all—I was far more interested in continuing walking the dog—but it did cause a few reflections about my years as an evangelical. Here are some of the things I was thinking, as I posted them to Twitter.

Aa guy pulled over to the side of the road and told me "I saw you and I want you to know Jesus loves you." pic.twitter.com/6Lg8kxB1al

— Jeffrey Nordstrom (@jeffnords) June 28, 2015

He kept trying to tell me that Jesus loves me. I just wanted to walk the dog. I just repeated "OK." #evangelism pic.twitter.com/swMq3ypgQP

— Jeffrey Nordstrom (@jeffnords) June 28, 2015

The church creates #evangelism narratives in order to sear followers to rejection. "Good for you. You tried." pic.twitter.com/3Dgqags8pO

— Jeffrey Nordstrom (@jeffnords) June 28, 2015

Any evangelist needs to set themselves up for failure because rejection confirms Christ's purported words. pic.twitter.com/wyiY5qiNo9

— Jeffrey Nordstrom (@jeffnords) June 28, 2015

I wouldn't change how I interacted with that evangelist, but I have some things to think about for next time. pic.twitter.com/1re1Lfmqba

— Jeffrey Nordstrom (@jeffnords) June 28, 2015

I remember being like him: telling the gospel to strangers and friends. Each rejection highlighted God's absence. pic.twitter.com/B6lUxMbOCt

— Jeffrey Nordstrom (@jeffnords) June 28, 2015

30 second snippets are not the best way to get an idea across, but I don't feel that my reflections are YouTube-worthy at the moment.

Here are a couple other related reflections:

• I've been on the other end of this. I know what it's like to awkwardly share my faith, only to have the other party flatly show no interest.
• There are many different motivations for this sort of evangelism: for example, He may have made a commitment to tell the gospel to one person a day. I've heard people make daily quote commitments like that before. Perhaps he felt like he needs to "get his numbers up," just as I was trying to "get my steps up" before midnight and my pedometer rolled over. It was 11:30 at night and perhaps he hadn't told anybody the gospel yesterday. I, leaning against a wall and looking down at my phone, would be an easy candidate. 
• There's a narrative in evangelism that assumes that the message you have is so valuable that nobody should ever deny it. It should, as my wife suggested, "waft from you like an aroma of fresh cookies" that attracts everybody that hears it. When they hear it, their lives will change. They can't resist it. The problem is, of course, that they can resist the gospel and they do resist the gospel. For thoughtful, critical thinkers like myself, this caused some severe cognitive dissonance.
• It's sort-of like the "L'il Susy" narrative, best exemplified by Jack Chick. I'd read a good discussion of this a few years ago; I don't remember where. However, in each L'il Susy comic, Susy tells the gospel and children receive it wholeheartedly and completely. This guy, pulling over to the side of the road, probably had an adult version of the narrative in his head. He wanted me to hear the words "Jesus loves you" and for it to click in my head that "This is what I need." Instead, I gave him the confirmation of persecution. 

Excerpt from "L'il Susy," Chick Publications. She's a regular character in Chick's comics for "Little Children."

The further I get from Christianity, the more ridiculous and offensive the message becomes. I once thought I'd continue to be interested in Christian thought, but it grows more banal by the day. 

And I'm thankful for the distance.