Have you ever been in an emergency situation where action needed to be taken? Maybe you saw someone that needed medical attention or you had to jump into a rescue situation. Well, how much training do most of us have for such situations? Not much. How natural is that for us? Probably not something we feel comfortable doing. The reality is, however, that when someone is in jeopardy we know we need to act.
The same is true with sharing our faith. Lee Stroebel shares the story of how he brought his father-in-law, Al, to faith. The man had been a hardened atheist for his entire life. Lee, after coming to faith himself, shared with him but was shut down and forcefully so. Lee’s normal style of sharing isn’t very confrontational so that was rough. And he did stay away from the subject largely for a long time. But then Al had a stroke and the prognosis was that he would keep having strokes until he died. So Lee was forced out of his comfort zone. He knew he had to be more up front with Al. So he got Al to himself and started sharing. He kept sharing even as Al ignored him. He spoke and got really bold, speaking under his breath, “Satan you can’t have him!” Finally, he broke through and Al was crying, and responding. Only hours later Al had a stroke that completely disoriented him and he died days later. Nothing about this was comfortable for Lee, but it had to be done, and it happened just in the nick of time.
The challenge to us is this: most of the time we’re called to share the faith in a way that works well for us, whether thorugh building relationships, serving, discussing faith when it comes up in coversation, etc, but sometimes we’re thrust into emergency situations- someone is dying, in danger, or going off to a place where you don’t think they’ll get to hear about faith again. In these situations we need to think like we do when a person’s life is in danger, and we might be called to get uncomfortable and bring them the life-saving news of Jesus directly. Even when that’s not your style.
I’m generally a more gradual sharer, but I’m glad that I got a little more direct a few years ago. I was working as a chaplain in a skilled nursing facility and a woman came in with cancer. She was supposed to be there just for rehab and then to go home again. But as she was sharing the story of her life, I engaged her on the questions of faith as well. She had fallen away largely, but said she was still spiritual. I pushed her though in ways I normally didn’t. We talked about Jesus, and her baptism, and where he’d been through her whole life even as she suffered. And she believed. And days later she was in a hospital even worse. We prayed that day, and I remember feeling such joy as she prayed in the name of Jesus. I thought she’d get better and be back at the nursing home the next day. Instead she died. It might not have been my normal style to push the conversation that first time, but I’m glad I did. Her family asked me to do the funeral and there was joy there that day in the midst of the sorrow.
