Seeing Gospel Opportunities in the Unexpected
What if?
What if you won a million dollars? What would you do with it?
What if your car is stolen? What’s your immediate response? The next day? One week later?
What if a government official walks into your church and asks you what you believe?
Would any of these questions be easy?
For me, the million dollar question is way too easy. Why, I can spend 100 million dollars fairly quickly. Yes, mission work would be the main beneficiary, and the need is great.
The stolen car question was asked in three parts, because the three timelines can have three different responses. Shock? Disappointment? Anger? I think it was The Simpsons that taught me the chain of responses in a crisis situation is known by the acronym DAFBA: denial, anger (D’OH!), fear, bargaining, and acceptance. There’s no right answer. For me, the stolen car question has other implications. Some neighbors of ours in France had their car stolen recently, when someone broke into the house to find the keys, hanging on a hook by the door, and off he went with a free car. That could happen to us, although our car is not the most attractive. The real issue for me is if one doesn’t find our keys sitting out waiting to be taken. What happens when someone doesn’t get a “free” car?
Finally, the government official question. Or it may be a news team. Or in the office, or a co-worker. Or on the street… anyone that you don’t expect, as if the question startles you: what do you believe? Or “who are you?”
Unexpected circumstances can yield gospel opportunities.
1 Peter 3:15 says “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” Who would ever ask me? Maybe we should expect that more. Maybe we should interpret someone’s comment as his way of asking that question: “I don’t know what to believe anymore…” Is that not a wide-open door, begging you to walk through and share your faith?
Maybe the reason no one asks us about the hope we have is because no one knows we have this hope?
Lord, help us to keep our ears open, and especially our hearts open, for neighbors, co-workers, kids knocking at our doors during Halloween, suffering people around us, and help us to love. Help us to be ready to give a response for the hope you give us. Protect all those in areas where crime rears its ugly head, so that your children will rise up and be witnesses for your glory. Amen.
Gary, along with his wife and children, minister to the people of Lille, France.