Going, Not Waiting

12/10/12       David,     about 40

On a sidewalk for the purpose of initiating witnessing conversations, I bumped into Steve, from my church, who had just been asked for a jump-start by a man from out of town whose car battery had died.  Steve had to get work, so he asked me if I had time to help the guy out.  I did, and as it turned out, he needed to me to charge his battery for a while before attempting to start the car.   While we waited I told him I lived in the neighborhood and attend a local church, then asked where he felt he was at spiritually. His name was David and he told me how he didn’t think he had things together before God, having just been through a nasty divorce and now in the middle of fighting for the custody of his three children who have been abused by his ex-wife’s new boyfriend.  He needed help sorting things out in his complicated life, not being sure where he stood with God between his own failures and his attempts to help his children, his lack of church involvement or even to find any time for God at all in the middle of all this.  He needed some compassionate counseling and practical spiritual advice which I gladly gave.  As I think about all this later I realize that this had been a Spirit-led opportunity to share Gospel truths that just sort of fell in my lap.  It was the sort of opportunity that many Christians passively wait for when it comes to sharing their faith.  But how often do these sorts of situations actually occur?  We are often too busy, like Steve who was late for work, to take advantage of the opportunities as they present themselves.  We hesitate to proactively initiate such conversations, maybe thinking this would be too artificial or contrived, not spiritual enough, so we wait for just the right opportunity that rarely comes along, passing by many other people who need to hear the gospel in the process.  Jesus’ commands us to “go” and make disciples.  Going doesn’t mean waiting.