In Christianity we are supposed to spread the faith. Jesus asked his disciples to be "fishers of men". The typical "we need to evangelize" sermon you will hear at church goes something like this: God has given us a great gift in Jesus Christ. This gift is life changing and gets you into heaven. To generalize, if you believe X is either essential to living life or essential to avoiding harm why would you not share X with everyone? I can think of a couple of reasons.

1. Some people don't want X. I'm not just talking about Jesus. But that fits. I don't want to hear about Jehovah from a Jehovah's witness. But I also don't want to hear about Kirby vacuums, or Trugreen lawn services, or weekend only delivery of the local newspaper. If I need a vacuum or lawn service or a newspaper I know where to find it. I've never been more interested in any of the above after talking to their representatives.

2. X sounds like a scam. I can see why someone wants to become a Christian and join a church about as much as I want to get involved in Amway. Sure its amazing and it changed your life. But you are weird and obsessed with stupid things that I don't care about. And I like my job. I don't want to earn a living going to all my friends and getting them to buy things from me.

3. Lastly, an offer of X is insulting. If you tell me about a better way to parent I'm going to thank you, maybe look into it, probably I won't. And that's where it will end with most people. But if you keep badgering my about your cure-all book or DVD collection I'm going to get the impression that you really think I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm also going to stop talking with you.

Maybe the main reason I don't like to share my faith with others is that I feel like what is actually getting shared is not the message of the gospel but the faith of the presenter. I am not going to claim a lack of faith. But I spend most of my time mulling through questions about my faith. So when I talk to other people about God or Jesus what comes out is not a strong dogmatic declaration. It is a winding, pedantic, quagmire. In the end I share more of my doubts than my faith.

I'm a believer desperately. I don't have all my answers lined up. I believe because I want to and I'm willing to let the loose ends be loose ends. I believe because if there is no redemption then I think we are all screwed. I believe because I think Jesus actually did die and rise again. That seems compelling to me. But I also totally understand why people don't want to hear about it. To be honest, I don't want to hear someone else talk about it either.

Lane Severson is a recovering child-prodigy, father, and Anglican. Follow Lane on Twitter @ljseverson