I’m working through some things with someone and in the back of my mind I really feel like the timing is such that he is needing to know Christ. Maybe even knowing that I am in ministry, this person could be subconsciously (or consciously) seeking me out to walk him through coming to understand life with Christ. He has eluded to attributes in my character and my giving nature as things he would like to see within himself, but just can’t seem to get there due to anxiety and fear. It’s almost like a scene scripted from the Matrix where he is Neo and it’s time to make the choice--which pill will he accept?
As I think about the situation I am presented with and what this person is saying, I have to step back and realize that it isn’t a time for Christianeze. It wasn’t my citation of Bible verses that caused him to see me as a giving person. It wasn’t my public prayer that showed him my strength in times of adversity. It was me just being me and him seeing who I am that brought this about.
I need to consider that while God is the Creator of the universe and has all power and authority to do anything--that we can do all things with Christ who gives us strength--this may be a case where some medication could be the best way to intervene. Maybe just listening to him speak and letting him work through the emotions of anxiety could be the best way to begin.
It’s so easy to throw the Bible at him and tell him that he is feeling this way because he has a God shaped hole in his heart that only God can fill. I could ask him if I could pray for him in his presence. Too often I think we as Christians resort to this as our first line of action. We fail to use our gift of listening and compassion to help go through the messy times that we are faced with as humans. We try to immediately put our trust in God by pointing to him and then running away hoping he will just impose his will immediately and then we can celebrate the victory without getting our hands dirty. In the end we can come across as cold and programmed rather than loving and compassionate. God didn’t become the answer to our lives until we were in a place when we could listen and realize God was there for us. We can’t just name drop Jesus and then flee believing that Christ will supernaturally become like a psychologist and have a spiritual dialog with others. Are we propaganda machines? Are we like car salespeople trying to get people to come into our showroom, only to turn them over to Christ the closer and stand back and watch him do everything?
In this situation I am going to be who God created me to be and seek to be compassionate and understanding. I am going to trust that God is ordaining this time and that his gospel will be made known. However, I am going to trust that one of his purposes for me was to be in situations like this and be patient, trusting that he wants to work through me, rather than without me. Trusting that in God’s master plan I don’t have the burden of setting a goal to lead other people to recite the sinner’s prayer. I will trust Christ that he will give me wisdom, patience, humbleness and the strength to be there for this person and let him know he is more than a statistic in my baptismal. That as God knew the number of hairs on this person’s head and knows his name, that he will lead me and let Christ shine as he fades me into the background. The process is beginning with prayer and through that I know God will reveal how to proceed as he softens this persons heart and draws him closer into his presence.
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Dear Dave,
This post is full of wonderful insight for Christians.
As a long-time doubter of Christ, I can testify that no amount of reading the Bible to someone or (worse) telling them to read it; and no amount of praying aloud with someone who isn’t ready will a) solve their problems or b) bring them to Christ any sooner.
Believers or not, all of us need friends. If our friends are full of the love of Jesus, and able to meet us where we are and listen rather than preach, maybe our hearts will turn in the same direction as our friends’ — if so, we find Jesus.