4/17/16 Jack, 55
When I run into believers while reaching out with the Gospel, I love to find out how they came to faith. Their stories have often involved a series of seemingly random people and events that could only be orchestrated by the Holy Spirit, because most often the faithful people involved weren’t aware of what the others were doing. These people were just faithfully reaching out to others and God helped that person “connect the dots” to catch their attention or form the bigger picture of the gospel.
I may have inadvertently become one of these random people when I began a conversation with a man at McDonalds named Jack. He was at a place in life in which he wasn’t ready to hear much from the Bible. He had grown up in church, taught Sunday school, fallen away and become mired in doubt and despair, and was now full of worry about his father, who had been recently hospitalized.
During our conversation Jack received a phone call in which he learned that his father’s condition was terminal and he would need to be immediately moved to hospice care. Jack didn’t need me to share the Gospel just then, he needed me to BE the Gospel. He needed a good listener, godly wisdom, and prayer, which I gave him at a time he needed it the most.
I was on vacation and out of state, and I needed to get back to my family activities so I’m pretty sure I will never see Jack again in this life. But my hope and prayer is that I could be one of many “random” people in his life that God is orchestrating to help Jack see the bigger picture of His love and grace, and bring him to a faith relationship with Jesus.
I’m so glad we aren’t responsible to make sure our outreach efforts don’t always fit within a logical program or strategic ministry. Sometimes God just needs us to be that random person sharing his love at just the time someone needs to hear it.
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