after practice last night, josh, john and i were standing outside church talking when an indian man approached us. his breath was musty with alcohol and his speech slurred. he started out by saying, are you from this christian church? can you help me? i need help.
he told his story in a surprisingly coherent way, considering he was substantially inebriated, having "had a can of beer just now". we found out he was a 49 year old police officer who had a drinking problem which put him in remand prison, caused his wife to leave him, and other heartbreaking problems.
he started to cry as he told us how he had wanted to jump off the 14th floor but decided to come and talk to us instead. he said he was a hindu but knows who Jesus is - "a messenger of God".
i told him gently that Jesus can help him and that Jesus is God. while he couldn't accept that, he said he knows Christ can help him. through his tears, he whimpered "please help me. please ask Christ to help me."
here was a desperate man who was ready to accept anything we handed to him. my tears welled up as i looked at him helplessly and realised that i wasn't quite sure what to do. what would Jesus do? i asked myself. i wanted to do what Jesus would.
i then asked him to pray and ask Jesus to help him. through his tears, i heard him cry out to Jesus for help. i then led him to pray after me. as he repeated the words "Jesus i know you love me", he could barely get the words out of his mouth as he broke down again and again. i know Jesus heard him.
when he had calmed down, he gave us his phone number and i gave him the church's emergency number. we then prayed for him. he thanked us profusely as he stood up, wobbled off onto the nearby stone bench, lay down and fell asleep.
many thoughts were racing through my mind that night. however what disturbed me most was the instant doubt that arose in me as i listened to his story. was he telling the truth? what if he was a cheat? was he just seeking attention?
it's so natural for our first reaction to be cynical and doubtful. the Holy Spirit reminded me that it doesn't matter if the man was telling the truth, or if he was a cheat. what mattered most was whether i reacted in the love of Jesus. if he was a liar or chronic attention-seeker, let him be. i can't change who he is but i can make sure that i always respond in love. we talk so much about evangelism and missions and reaching out to the world, but when someone who needs Jesus turns up at our doorstep, we're at a loss as to what to do. are we turning into pharisees who can't walk the talk?
i'm guilty of this. but by the grace of God and guidance of the Spirit, i pray i will never be cynical or indifferent to the needs of the people we profess to be reaching out to. if my life is surrended to Christ, i want to ensure that my mouth, hands and feet are always at His disposal to reach the world He died to save. Jesus didn't die so that we can have a nice church service. He died so that someone like me and the indian man can be free. may we never take the sacrifice of our Christ for granted.
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