Challenging prayer group

The prophetic word that was shared last night, concerning the importance of sharing the light of God's love with a dark and desperate world, struck painfully close to home.

How does my right (and, perhaps, responsibility) to avoid people who are toxic to my life - particularly my anti-theist coworker - balance against that?

To put first things first: we must always test a prophetic utterance against holy scripture and the teaching of the Church.  This one certainly passes that test.

Secondly, and very importantly, not every directive of God, whether through scripture, church teaching or the word gifts of the Holy Spirit, should be applied to every situation.  It isn't even hard to think of a scenario where that guidance applies to this specific example.  A recovering alcoholic receiving this message, for instance, shouldn't conclude that he should start going into bars and evangelizing there without very careful discernment from his sponsor and appropriate support.  "Environmental control" is an important and specific part of every relapse plan and shouldn't be cast off for the sake of a general principle such as "share the light in the darkness."

Thirdly, and significantly, are how the decisions I made in this case fit with the above.  It took me some time to work through how my coworker's disbelieving rationalism intersected with my own.  I'd just reached the point at which I felt I could meet his accusation of willful blindness with confident peace in my spirit.  I'd figured out that my faith in Jesus Christ is the only answer that works in my life, that helps me know who I should strive to be and why, that helps me even slightly aspire to be such a man.  I was finally ready to interact with my disbelieving coworker again, and in fact it was my choice to do so that led to my learning that he had died the day before.  That wasn't a matter of my being paralyzed by doubt and failing to share God's love, but of making sure that my house was built on bedrock and would withstand the storm.

I need not feel accused by last night's message, and even if I were, I live by God's grace, not by my own ability to get everything right along the way.