Hope? What hope?

I was reading in 1 Peter today and came across this familiar verse:  “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect….”  1 Peter 3:15. 

Here’s my question:  If no one is asking you to give the reason for the hope you have, could it be that you aren’t demonstrating any? 

Let’s think about it this way, if you are married but you don’t wear a ring, when you first meet people they generally aren’t going to ask you about your spouse because there is no evidence that you have one.  Or, here’s another:  If your house is simply painted white, with no color or no effects, no visitor will ever ask you what color the paint is or how you made the paint look textured.  Why not?  Well, to state the obvious again, when there is no evidence of something in a given context, others entering the context have no reason to ask about the something that doesn’t appear to exist.  Although it is extremely obvious, given my own experience and failings in this area it struck me as worth saying and saying more than once… 

Has anyone asked you lately?  If not, perhaps you should be getting on your knees right now and asking the One who can answer why not. 

ADDED CONTENT:  Sometimes people just read the post without going to the comments, but the first comment attached to this post was such a great response that I wanted to put it here.  Kiki Cherry, missionary and blogger (http://thecherrypitt.blogspot.com), writes this in response:

Or maybe we’re not out among people who need to ask. That was me before we came up here. Most of the people I interacted with were already Christians. I was so busy doing church activities, that I never got out into the world.

What has been amazing is to discover how much easier it actually is to answer that question than what I had imagined. I think I had built up in my mind an expectation that people would openly shun me, or recoil when I mentioned my faith.

But that’s not been the case at all. Most people are rather gracious, and very interactive. And I think one of the greatest lies of Satan is that we won’t know exactly what to say. But you know what is cool? God can make the person HEAR exactly what He wants them to hear, even if we stumble over our words.

God is so awesome. His mercy and patience with me is amazing, even when I act like a big scaredy cat. I’m so thankful that our success is dependent on His character and not our ability.

Thank you, Kiki, for a fantastic comment and for reminding us all that God is in control and that we have nothing to fear.  He simply wants us to love and obey.  Isn’t it funny how we can talk all about our faith and hope with people we know are safe (i.e., other Christians), but when it comes to people about whom we aren’t sure, we tone ourselves down.