Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 NIV
A few months ago, some friends and I were exploring a city and a culture that were very new to each of us. We took a taxi into town with the plan to begin our afternoon in the market district and then to locate and explore the older, historic part of this particular town, knowing that we would need to take a water taxi to move from point A to point B. After exploring many shops and soaking in the culture that bleeds through any market district, we headed to the dock to start our trek across the river.
Easy enough. We boarded the little wooden boat, paid our taxi fees, enjoyed our glide across the calm river, and within twenty minutes, stepped out on the other side. As we started to explore that area, we began to realize that though it was filled with more shops of various types, it wasn’t quite the historic town that we were looking for. The buildings that we were seeing just didn’t quite match the images of the old buildings that my friends had seen on Google and there were no signs marking the well-known tourist attraction of the “old town”.
We took some time to enjoy the shops in that area since we were there, but eventually decided to start asking for some guidance in making our way to the old part of town. First stop – a booth with a few official looking gentlemen. We told them where we were trying to go, and they gladly pointed us down the street, so off we went. After walking a little way, we stopped by another group of official looking gentlemen to make sure that we were still going in the correct direction. They confidently pointed us to the right, so we circled around some buildings and continued on along the riverside. It didn’t take us long to end up right back at the water taxi station where we had gotten off the little boat the first time. We told the gentlemen at the booth where we were trying to go and just as all the others had done, he confidently pointed in the direction that we should go, telling us to go to the next water taxi stand that we would come to on this side of the river and they could take us to the old town via water taxi. We followed those instructions word by word, finding our way onto another water taxi after verifying where we wanted to go. Having been led astray many times by this point, we sought one more confirmation from the water taxi driver before the boat took off. He assured us that he was taking us to the very port that we had asked to go.
At last, we were going to make it to the old part of town!
In hindsight, perhaps we should’ve taken a hint or trusted our gut when the boat got stuck on the dock, requiring all of us to off load and then quickly jump back on before the driver headed off. About half way through the trip it became evident that the driver was taking us, and all of the other passengers onboard, to the other side of the river. The side of the river that we knew was opposite the old part of town and most certainly the opposite side of the river from the water taxi port that the driver assured us that he was taking us to. He pulled into the dock and waited for us to get off the boat. It was obvious that he was not planning on taking us where we wanted to go, so after a few questions in attempting to clarify the situation, we disembarked and decided that we had experienced enough adventure for the day. Though I could continue the story with the excitement that went into finding a ground taxi to take us back to the hotel, I’ll save those details for another day and carry on with the story of this part of the adventure.
Having been nearly my first experience in this culture, in reflecting on this experience, I was simply confused. How could multiple groups of people so confidently point us in what they very likely knew was the wrong direction and even more so, why did the boat driver very clearly telling us that he was taking us one place, but left us to get off his boat in a very different area? Though after gaining some understanding surrounding this culture parts of these questions were answered, I can’t say that my wondering has been completely satisfied. But nonetheless it was an adventure indeed and it is certainly something that we will remember.
With this experience still very fresh in my mind, just days after it occurred, I was sitting with the Lord when God began to speak through it.
He began to replace me and my physically lost friends in this new town with the spiritually lost in this world.
He shifted the story from friends seeking a historic town to the lost seeking the Way.
And then he laid this question on my heart. If someone comes to me looking for something to fill the void in their life…looking for peace, joy, and love…looking for the Lord of their lives, whether or not they know it…will I point them in the right direction? Even more so, will I walk them to the foot of the cross to assure that they make it there without getting distracted or pulled in a different direction?
Or will I confidently point them in a direction that will have them falling into the same cycles of emptiness? Even worse, will I take them to the other side of the river – even further from knowing Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior than they are right now?
My friends. These are some heavy questions, but I do believe that we all need to stop to consider each of them and though I don’t know if you have a recent story of getting lost in a new place to relate to, I want to invite you to think about these questions with me.
Do you know how much hassle it would have saved us if someone had simply pointed us in the right direction that day? Or think about how many steps it would have saved us for someone, a local who knew the way, to walk with us to the old part of town! But instead of these things, we were led further astray to the point that we GAVE UP on our search.
Gosh, my heart is breaking for those who are living a life of hassle and strife or running tirelessly simply trying to find the thing they lack. I am hurting for those who don’t know the peace of God and have never embraced the grace and mercy of our good, good Father.
Brothers and sisters, I understand that it is not every day that someone comes to us in our day to day lives and directly asks to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not every day that we get to journey all the way up to the foot of the cross with someone. But are we prepared to do so when those opportunities do come?
What about when people come to us with problems of this world and because God has opened our eyes, we so evidently see that they are lacking the love, peace, and joy of the Lord? They are lacking the very things that have been made accessible to us as ambassadors of the Lord and it’s not that these things would fix their world, but these things would help the lost to shape an eternal perspective, rather than having their hope rooted in this so very broken world. Are we prepared for the opportunity to simply point in the right direction in those moments?
Lord Jesus, fill us with the knowledge of your truth and grace and mercy. Open our eyes to the opportunities that you put before us, that as we are led by you, we may step into these orchestrated encounters with boldness and a love for others that is tangible; a love that points to you.
Five years ago, I could never have told you or anyone else the gospel. Four years ago, I lacked the confidence to do so, especially among my non-believing friends and family. Three years ago, I was convinced that loving people well was enough, and someone else could verbally share the gospel. Two years ago, God began to open my eyes to these opportunities to share this hope that I have and showed me that He would provide the strength to step into them with boldness. This past year, has really broken my heart for the lost while at the same time, continually reminding me that a missed opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ is a missed opportunity to extend the greatest act of love to those who are around me. A missed opportunity isn’t about me or my performance or my success as a Christian or lack thereof, it is about the seed that wasn’t planted in that encounter. It is about the salvation of a loved one. It is about eternity. It is about light in the darkness. It is about life and death.
At one point this year a friend gently challenged me that if stepping into these opportunities to share Christ is the greatest act of love, what does that say about not stepping into them?
Friends, when we point our loved ones to something other than Christ we are sending them on a detour that just might lead them to giving up on their search someday, just as my friends and I did once we were dropped off on the other side of the river.
Now please, hear me out. Yes, God is sovereign and if I miss an opportunity (which I have and I still do more often than I even know or want to know, I’m sure!), that does not mean that I just ruined eternity for the person or people on the other end of the conversation. It doesn’t mean that they will never have the opportunity to encounter Christ or to hear the gospel from someone else! God certainly doesn’t need us in this way… BUT He does give us opportunities to be involved in sharing this message of reconciliation and what a joy that should be to us! We GET TO plant seeds for the Lord. We GET TO participate in the big picture; God’s eternal plan and the coming of His Kingdom. We GET TO have our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace every single day!
Brothers and sisters, I want to challenge you today. If you don’t feel prepared to share the gospel, to disciple, to lead someone to the cross, or to even point in the right direction – start seeking change TODAY. Dive into the Word. Spend time with the Lord. Allow Him to teach you. Seek out a godly mentor. Pray for wisdom and understanding. In the same way, if you lack boldness, ask God for boldness. If you lack the eye for opportunities, ask God to help you see. If your heart is simply not breaking for the lost, ask God to break your heart with the things that break His.
If your answer is that you are not prepared today, that should NOT still be your answer a year from now. We will never know everything and we will continue on in this process of sanctification with every breath that we take, but with each day we should be more greatly equipped and prepared to participate in the great commission at all times.
There are people all around us who are searching. They are going from one place to another, one temporary satisfaction to another, one water taxi station to the next seeking fulfillment… but their search continues. Soon enough, we will be that person at the next water taxi station that they come to and we have the ability and the opportunity to point them in the right direction. We get to point them in the direction everlasting; to the well that won’t run dry.
What a blessing it is to be messengers of this good Word.
With that being said, if you are reading this and you’re finding yourself identifying with that person who has consistently been pointed in the wrong direction or that person who is tirelessly striving to fill that void in your heart to no avail, would you make a step today too? Would you boldly seek someone out who you can ask how to embrace the cross of Jesus Christ? And if they can’t walk you to the cross themselves, ask them where you can go or who you can talk to or you can reach out to me! God is waiting to lavish you in the abundance of His love, peace, and joy today – so please don’t delay. Eternity is at hand and the time is now for your search to come to an end as you put your faith in the hope of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
“You know the way to the place where I am going.” – Jesus, John 14:4
With love,
Your Sister in Christ
