Eyes on Eternity

8/1/14            Junior                    about 25

The “fixer-upper” cottage Anne and I have purchased is keeping us very busy this summer.  Due to its rural location in a river valley it has very limited cell-phone / internet coverage, so I’ve been somewhat off the grid when it comes to Facebook.  I won’t be writing my usual witnessing encouragement stories during August, but continue with my goal to share the gospel daily.  When teaching, I was in the habit of stopping somewhere to initiate outreach conversations on my way home from my school day, but now doing rehab work usually leaves me very tired and dirty in the evenings.  So I’ve learned to reach out in the mornings, when I run to town to get supplies for my workday, usually at a Home Depot or Menards, and often in Spanish.  The conversations aren’t usually as in depth as when I would stop at a park or a fast food restaurant after work and people had more time to talk, but I believe it can be a valuable way to share God’s truth and love with people who might spend some time thinking about it during their work day.  One such man was Junior, whose response to my question about eternity prompted him to ask if I believe in aliens, which he does.  I admitted there are a lot of compelling stories about aliens on YouTube, but told him my belief, which admittedly might seem just as far-fetched to some people.  The spirit world spoken of in the Bible, a world of angels and demons and demonic rulers of principalities in this fallen world, could be the source of UFO sightings as part of the spiritual battle to distract us from the things of God.  Junior could see my point, and we went on to talk about the Gospel, which he appreciated.  We were standing by his car, which he obviously took a lot of pride in, so I complemented him on it and his good care of it and how it is good to take care of our earthly possessions, but how much more it makes sense to be concerned about our own soul, which lasts an eternity.  It is easy to forget about that as we go through the busyness of our everyday lives, so let’s keep our eyes on eternity, and stop to help others do that too!