Okay, so if any of you have known me for even a day, you know that I'm someone who doesn't hide their faith. It's just who I am; I am a normal teenager, but I also have a relationship with someone who I've found to be God. I started carrying around a Bible around campus, and I've never gotten any reactions, positive or negative, from strangers. The thing is, one of my friends seems to have a huge problem with it. This friend I've known since elementary school, but I had to move away sometime later and never met up again until our last year of high school. I moved again around the begining of January and met him again in college. Let's just say, a lot changed about me from this February to today, spirtually speaking. When I first brought my book, he hardly made a mentioning of it. His voice seemed a little odd, but I just took it as surprise. The second time he brought it up, it was kind of the same thing. The third time however, it felt like he was completely telling me off. His approach was "What the hell is up man, why the sudden change? What's wrong with you?" I tried to explain things to him, but I could tell that he either coudln't understand my side or just didn't care what I had to say. I saw him today but didn't even speak a word to him. He probably thinks I'm a phyco when that's the complete oppsite. It's just the way I am. To be CLEAR: I've never preeched to him or brought up anything religious in any of our conversations outside of the bible confrontation. I'm not really sure what to do. Do I just start completely avoiding him or do I confront him. I can take opposition from complete strangers and non-believers, but this guy is suppose to be my friend. :(
Your friend is just shocked at your change. Things like that happen when you don't see someone for a long time, especially when you through a drastic change during that time. However, you don't know what happened to him. Maybe he was religious too but some event changed his faith. He could have had some drastic change, as well. Either way, I don't think you should avoid your friend nor confront him directly. Just do what you want and if he makes another comment, try to nicely word how you feel about it. You don't have to give him your whole testimony, but make it clear how important it is to you and as your friend, he should respect that, just as you should respect his own beliefs. I can't guarantee that won't end in hurt feelings or an argument, or maybe worse, but that's what I would do in your shoes.
I'm on the same lines with Bueno-chan here. I also want to add that some people are not as tolerant when it comes to other people's beliefs. Maybe your friend's a hardcore agnostic and just can't bear religious matters that well. Of course, I wouldn't know, but it's a possibility. But yes, the best thing to do right now is a conversation. Talk things through and see what happens.
This is going to end badly. Almost the same happened with me and one of my friends and to make a long story short things got physical and his relationship with me ended with his broken nose. If someone doesn't like it, they don't like it. I know it sucks but some people just aren't willing to tolerate other's views, more and more each day it seems. People change with time, it's sad but sometimes you just have to let people go.
