You Just Never Know - 23/3/09
You Just Never Know
Cameron Lee
I was up at Katoomba for a week over summer at a conference. There was a Christian couple there from Queensland who had flown down and didn’t have a car. They were staying at the same place as my sister and I, so I gave them lifts to the convention centre several times each day.
The woman had her arm in a sling. I avoided asking the obvious question about what had happened, sure that she’d be tired of explaining the injury already. But half way through the week my curiosity finally won out.
It turned out she’s an Olympic weightlifter, and she dislocated her shoulder lifting 140 kg at Beijing. It’s a bit of a shock when you realise there’s someone in the back seat who’s quite capable of lifting both you and your sister at once with ease (not that she would have, but you know what I mean). It struck me that you really don’t know who you might be talking to, who they are, what their story is.
The incident recalled for me another person I had met, on the bus to uni late last year. She was an older woman, and she was clearly very upset. She cried quietly most of the way from Campbelltown to Wollongong. Her two young boys also looked pretty down. I had no idea of the cause, no clue of her story. I spent most of the trip feeling somewhat guiltily like I should do something.
I knew I should tell her that Jesus brings hope, but there was no easy way to do it. I had some food, perhaps her boys were hungry, and I thought she might accept the message if a gift came with it. In the last minutes I finally got the guts to make the offer.
The response rocked my expectations. She didn’t want the gift, but she took the Bible, and readily read the bookmarked section. She thanked me for my thirty second explanation.
I hopped off the bus and never saw her (or the Bible) again. I can only pray that she took God’s Word to heart.
The whole thing was no credit to my clumsy evangelism (as if God’s Word needs food to work… how embarrassing). My point is we often just won’t know who someone really is, or where they’re at, or how God is preparing their hearts for his message.
When the apostle Peter was giving instructions about godly living in 1 Peter 3:13-15, he said this; ‘Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect’.
It’s something I’ve been challenged to do, to be prepared to talk whenever God needs me to. It’s not something I consider myself particularly good at. Praise God that he is the one who changes peoples’ hearts, not us!
Cameron is doing his 2nd year of Physics. He enjoyed going for a canoe trip before sunrise last weekend while on his church’s weekend away.
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