This week as part of World AIDS Day, our church gave free AIDS tests and encouraged everybody to get one. I snapped a photo of the questionnaire that we had to fill out before the test. I was shocked by how graphic the questions were.
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I printed copies of the forms to hand out to my small group guys that night. Before handing them out, I explained to them that I had taken an AIDS test that day and had to fill this out.
Boys will be boys. They laughed pretty hard at the questions. I think it was more out of discomfort than it was finding the questions funny. Either way, there was about 5 minutes of hard laughter.
When they finished reading, I told them about having to go to the county clinic a few years earlier to get my immunizations for a mission trip. At the clinic was a muscular man about 30 years old crying hard after getting his test results. This is the form he had to fill out before taking his test.
The room was suddenly and solemnly quiet. The boys were face-to-face with the reality and gravity of what they held in their hands.
I ended the illustration with these words:
– People who choose to live by their own way instead of God’s way have to worry about stuff like this
– People who fall victim to their own decisions need the compassion you’re feeling for that man I mentioned
– The church needs to live right and treat people right
