Pastor Neil Tomba cycled across the US last month on a three-thousand-mile Conversations Coast to Coast ride. His team began in Santa Monica, California, on May 25, and ended thirty-three days later, on June 28, in Annapolis, Maryland. 

For a month, we rode side-by-side for miles on end. 

Well, sometimes we rode single file when traffic and road conditions demanded it. 

As we rode, we engaged people across the country with kindness, respect, and curiosity. We had conversations and talked about things that were important to them and to us.  

We asked questions about where they live, what they value, what they think is important to their community, if they think about spiritual things, and what they think about Jesus. 

We tried not only to show others how we can have kind and respectful conversations about faith and spiritual matters, but we wanted to use our experiences as a tool to educate and equip Christians to start conversations wherever they may be in life. 

A favorite line from my days with Cru (formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ International) is the definition of successful conversations about Jesus: “taking the initiative in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.”  

I believe that Jesus’ call in my life is to impact culture but to start with individuals by connecting with people on a heart level. To do that, we live side-by-side—not as superior people with all the answers.  

Riding bikes, I discovered the effectiveness of side-by-side conversations instead of going all out for face-to-face confrontations. 

Talking face-to-face  

Starting a conversation with someone about real issues—issues of hope, purpose, and faith—takes some effort, but it’s worth it. I believe it’s what the Lord has called us to do, as believers.  

Coming alongside another person and just talking can be comfortable. Nonthreatening. Just standing next to someone and listening…

If a structural engineer in Southern California is right, half a million people in his state are living in buildings that are likely to collapse if an earthquake strikes.

Called “soft-story” structures, they are apartment buildings with a parking lot underneath. They were a popular way to combine housing and parking in California’s post-war boom. But the posts that carry the building’s weight were often designed to maximize parking space, not to withstand the side-to-side shifting of an earthquake. 

A powerful tremblor can collapse these posts and the structures they support. Some owners are taking steps to retrofit their buildings, but many more properties are at risk. 

“Soft-story” buildings are a metaphor for our times. There is peril in our world we cannot see on the surface. All seems fine today, but when a crisis strikes tomorrow, the hidden danger becomes all too apparent and devastating. 

“I only did what I had to do” 

Crisis reveals character. Consider two examples. 

A man ran into a burning building in Aberdeen, Washington, last Thursday to save his eight-year-old niece. When a fire broke out in their home, he rushed inside, grabbed her, and took his shirt off to wrap around her face so she would not inhale smoke. 

Derrick Byrd, age twenty, is recovering in a Seattle hospital from burns on his face, neck, arms, and back. He said, “I don’t care if I was burning. I just wanted to make sure I got her out.”