We met at freshmen orientation only to meet again during our second term. David was a Muslim from central Asia studying at our university. We quickly struck up a friendship because of our common interest in religion and passion for our own beliefs.
Coffee Stimulates Conversation
Every week we would get together for 2-3 hours over coffee somewhere in town. We followed a similar format each time. One of us would make a presentation to the other for about an hour, and then the other one would ask questions for the next hour. Then we would reverse roles at the next meeting.
These alternating conversations took place for approximately one semester. We would make presentations about our faith, and sometimes about how our faith answered or struggled to answer contemporary social questions. We learned so much from one another!
The best conversation we had, and David would agree, was about Jesus dying on the cross. Since we were comparing notes on our belief systems and our religious texts, the historicity of many matters like this one became crucial. Sometimes we would find outside verification of facts and bring the evidence back to the table to discuss.
Our Open Conversion Goals
We openly stated our goals to one another. I was attempting to convert David to Christianity. David was trying to convert me to Islam. We both agreed it wouldn’t be quick, but it would be lively; and we were committed to the process with one another.
Actually, this conversion goal was the key to the conversations. If conversion of the other wasn’t going to be each of our goals, then why bother to talk?! In fact, why bother to hold religious beliefs of any kind if we are not going after the truth and knowing God truly?! We both felt the same way.
Our agreement included being serious and honest with one another, to seek to understand, and to stay friends regardless. We in fun promised one another there would be no violence against one another or our families, as our faith ancestors have been accused of doing.
I prayed for his conversion, and I am sure he prayed for mine. I was hoping I would win, or rather that God would graciously open David’s eyes not only to truth, to Holy Scripture, but to the amazing grace of God for salvation from sin in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is the Lord God!
An Abrupt Ending
David wanted eternal assurance of forgiveness, which he could not find in the Quran. Toward the end of the semester he was starting to believe. We ended up spending more and more of our time in the Bible, in verses like these:
Romans 3:21–25a ESV “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”
1 John 2:2; 5:11-12 ESV “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. . . . And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”After that semester we never saw one another again. I don’t know what happened, perhaps he transferred schools, or had to go back home. I learned a tremendous amount from my friend, about his religion yes, but moreso about friendships.
Friendships, especially cross-cultural and cross-religious ones, are personally challenging. But they are also gifts of God’s grace to us. And they can become life transforming if we pursue them with sincerity.
Be open about inter-faith dialogue. There is nothing to fear, and so much to gain. True, I didn’t convert him, and he didn’t convert me. But, I think about my friend David often, pray for him and his family, and hope that he found peace with God in the grace of Christ.
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