Ocean Side Conversations

Let me share an encounter I once had with a neighbour that shook me up.  One of our neighbours, Sue, gave her life to the Lord and began coming to church with her 3 daughters who were the same ages as our 3 girls.  Her husband Keith was very leery about this Christian thing and it took him quite a while before he reluctantly started coming to church with Sue and the kids.  Often after church our two families would go down to the beach for a picnic lunch and for the kids to play together in the sand and in the surf.

Inevitably Keith would bring up the subject of Christianity and often start asking me questions.  No matter how diplomatic I was the exchanges always seemed to end up testy and tense.  It got to the stage that I began to dread these times as I didn’t want to be a stumbling block for Keith coming to Christ.  For about 6 months these weekly get-to-gethers continued with the conversations seemingly getting deeper and deeper and tenser and tenser.  I was at my wits end.

 

Happily, one morning at church Keith responded to the altar call and gave his life to Christ.  Sue, Val and I of course were delighted and I felt at last I was off the hook!

A few weeks later Keith was baptised and as was the custom at church, he shared his testimony.  During it he mentioned that his Sunday talks with Mel were an important part of his journey in coming to Christ.  In fact, he said, the closer he came to making a decision for Christ the more obnoxious he became when talking to Mel about it.  I was flabbergasted.  All those times I was worried and upset at how things were going were in fact times when Keith was drawing near. 

It taught me an important lesson.  You can never be sure where a person is at on their quest for faith and the truth.  But we can be sure of is this.  If we are willing to be available and to be in the line of fire, so to speak, then the Holy Spirit will do His part.

Mel Newth