By Chris Stefanick

In many ways, coolness wasn’t a big help to adolescent development in the ‘80s and ‘90s. As a member of “generation Jeff Spicoli” (see “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”—or better yet, don’t see it!), drinking, messing around with girls, and skating by in school with a C- would have all been socially acceptable for me.

The ever-shifting parameters of “cool” drove hordes of teens to put grease in their hair in the ‘50s, sleep outdoors for three days in the mud at Woodstock in the ‘60s, wear bellbottoms in the ‘70s, and popularized disturbingly neon clothing in the ‘80s.  Much like the wind, “cool” is hard to pin down, but its effects on youth culture are hard to miss.

Thanks to an early conversion to the Catholic faith, I wasn’t a casualty of cool. In high school I wore baggy pants, had long hair and had a rosary dangling visibly from my pocket. I could rip on electric guitar and knew every John Michael Talbot (a Catholic quasi-monk musician) song ever written. I wasn’t the norm. The fact that I was deeply religious and regarded as cool by my peers was an anomaly. And as a teenager I stood out like a sore thumb at pro-life demonstrations.

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I will first answer this question, received at a Catholic family conference, with a question: Has anyone heard a more heart warming question than that? How happy would Blsd. Pope John Paul II be to hear that question? What a great example of 'the new evanglization.' Let me first give some stories of young people evangelizing and then some practical examples.

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During my high school and college years, I worked quite a few summers at a local feed and seed store here in Wichita, KS, which happens to also specialize in grass seed and lawn care products. And for those of you who have put in a new lawn at your own house or do so for a living, you know that well, it can be a pretty time-consuming process.

Not only do you have to pick the right grass seed and fertilizer, but you have to get the soil ready for planting, and then once the seed has been planted, you have to water, and water, and water it again…not just so that the grass will come up…but so that the roots will go deeper and deeper into the ground, because roots naturally follow the moisture…and without a good (deep) root system, that lawn won’t make it in a Kansas summer heat. Even then, we still have to water it at times.

Now your typical fescue lawn is probably the most common grass for Kansas lawns (OK, I know this sounds like a lawn and garden education class but stick with me). Your typical fescue lawn has roots that are about 12-14 inches deep into the ground…now that sounds somewhat deep…but if you’ve ever driven on Interstate I-35 between Wichita and  Kansas City, you’ve seen and driven through the Flint Hills…And the roots of the native grass on those hills, believe it or not, are 12-14 feet deep in the ground…and so because of their root system, they’re able to handle the summer’s heat (without sprinklers) and the winter’s cold so well…and that’s why native grass grows back even after a fire.

And so as I was reflecting on the Parable of the Sower and the Seed in Matthew’s Gospel (Ch 13), the question popped into my head: “Where are my roots? Where are the roots of my spiritual life? What type of soil is my soul? What kind of fruit am I producing?”

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The first step is to keep in mind that sharing your faith isn’t about making someone else feel bad about their faith, but to seek the truth, to show others how beautiful it is. Make them understand that the only reason you are sharing is because you love them, and you want them to know Jesus and His Church. Teach the truth, but do it in love. The truth should be its own defense, and it is easy to accept when the Truth is wrapped in love.

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