I had a little time to think this morning as I stood streetside waiting for my rideshare partner to pick me up this morning. As it turned out, wires were crossed and I was still standing there when I finally figured out that she wouldn’t be coming. It’s the first time that it’s happened and it was just a missed answering machine message, but it made me think about that feeling you have when you’re the one who is left standing on the street.

I’ve always been the rescuing type. I often feel compelled to reach in and find the soft spot of a person and try to fix what’s broken, but it’s a temptation that I have learned to resist because the reality is that I can’t fix anything. I can be sympathetic, helpful, and even give good advice, but really, only God fixes things and sometimes even He chooses not to. I imagine it’s because of what we learn when are the ones left behind. We learn who we can depend on.

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We got this OA this week from New Life Community Church in Burlingame, CA: 

I wanted to let you know that on my flight I had a doable experience. My seatmate & I were talking generally about living in the Bay Area & he asked what I liked and what I don’t. I told him that one complaint I have is that in the Bay Area people aren’t interested in my faith journey as Christian in the same way that they would be if I were Kabbalistic Jew/Buddhist/Hindu/etc. And I acknowledged that Christian evangelism has been misguided at times, giving people some legitimate cause to be leery of us. I added that I was part of a group of people trying to do things differently.

We continued to chat and he agreed to answer the four Doable Evangelism questions. YAY! Here’s the 60-Second Survey:

• What’s the difference between spirituality and religion?
• Which spiritual person do you most admire?
• What would you say to Christians if they would listen?
• Has anyone ever tried to “save” you?

He had some interesting things to say. In particular he said that Christians should quit using Heaven as a carrot and focus on the here & now. Christians should speak of what relevance the faith might mean for people today. Interestingly, he also knew that the Bay Area has abysmal church participation, but he perceives that there are many churches here. We talked about faith for about 45 minutes — which is a long time for an amateur like me!

There is no dramatic conclusion to this story, no profession of faith, no sinner’s prayer prayed, etc., but a few days later I realized that this is in fact the ONLY time I have ever talked to an airplane seatmate about faith. I was comfortable identifying as a Christian and he seemed comfortable sharing his faith and concerns and doubts, too. I felt good that it was definitely a conversation, not a sales pitch.

I remember that Randy said we need a new way of keeping score in evangelism, and that we should be counting conversations not just conversions, so it was exciting to be equipped to interact with a stranger about faith and not feel weird and phony and Bible thump-y while doing so. The 4-questions approach really worked here because it facilitated an honest exchange of ideas.

My husband and I were driving back from meeting his parents, which is about an hour drive, and we were talking about our ministry to seniors last night. Earlier in the day, we had finished our Southern Gospel services to three senior facilities and we were hashing over the whole experience. We talked about the various seniors, many of whom have been in the senior facilities that we serve for the entire six years that we’ve been going there.

As we talked, I told my husband how I had noticed that sometimes, when I think that there is no connection there, I will bend down and peer directly into their eyes and I will feel as if suddenly their hearts are right there inside their glistening pupils.

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