Hooks in Water

12/4/13                Chen           29

It was an unlikely time and place for a Gospel conversation.  A busy rush-hour intersection, just after dark, cold with a light mist falling. waiting for the light to change.  An Asian man in the opposite crosswalk, and in our part of Chicago very likely that he wouldn’t know English.  But Jesus said “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people”, so I put my hook in the water.  My question about eternity led to a half-hour conversation with Chen, 29, an immigrant from Taiwan who had grown up in a Buddhist household but attended a Catholic school.  At first he told of his Buddhist beliefs, but later how he has also been exploring various other religious ideas on YouTube.  I helped him see that even his Buddhist belief in reincarnation requires some sort of judgment, and since he was familiar with the Ten Commandments it was easy to help him see how he would be judged by that standard.  The law helped him see his need for forgiveness, and he was very open to receiving the good news of forgiveness through faith in Jesus, at least on an intellectual level.  What happened on the heart level is for the Holy Spirit to know, but what I do know is this wouldn’t have happened had I not “put the hook in the water”.  We can call ourselves fishermen, read about it, wear the t-shirt, subscribe to the magazine, hang out with other fishermen, sing the songs, and pat ourselves on the back but unless we actually  put our hooks in the water we aren’t going to catch any fish!