Opportunities

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” (Romans 10:9-15 NIV)

When I am traveling internationally, I prefer sitting in the aisle seat on the outside row, either sitting next to my wife or no one.  As I climbed aboard a flight several years ago from Johannesburg, South Africa to New York, a 16-hour flight, I was really hoping for an empty window seat.  As I looked down the aisle and found my row, I could see I was not going to get my wish.  In the window seat was a twenty-something woman.  I jokingly apologized to her, assuming she, too, was hoping the seat next to her would be vacant.  She smiled and we just made small talk as the planed filled with other passengers.  

She had just completed a “bucket list” trip that included summiting Mount Kilimanjaro.  She was returning to home in New York City to resume her graduate studies.  I told her I was returning from leading a group of college students on a trip to Cape Town.  As the plane was taxiing to the runway for takeoff, she asked if I was a professor.  I told her I directed a campus ministry and she asked, “What religion?”  I responded that I helped students learn to follow Jesus.  She replied, somewhat skeptically, “Well, that’s a religion, isn’t it?”

Thus began a half-hour discussion on Jesus, religion, and the Bible. What I discovered in that brief time was this woman was “forced” to attend church when she was young, that she had never read the Bible, and that she had an open heart to “spiritual” things.  She asked me what part of the Bible I would recommend her to read, since she was unwilling to read the whole thing.  I suggested the Gospel of John and, for a minute, she wrestled with how she would remember that.  I suggested the name of the airport at which we would be landing—John F. Kennedy.  And that was it, until we landed and I gave her my card with the following written on it: The Gospel of John, www.Biblegateway.com (she didn’t own a Bible), Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.  She tucked the card into her purse.  We walked together to the Passport Control area and then went our separate ways.  

There is no doubt in my mind the Lord wanted me sitting next to this woman on that flight.  There was Good News to share and He appointed me to share it.  How often do we put our selfish desires ahead of what the Lord may have for us and miss the opportunities to tell others of the Good News of Jesus?   If I had gotten my way, that is exactly what would have happened.   Thankfully, the Lord had other plans and I submitted to them.  

Today, recognize the opportunities the Lord may bring your way to tell others the Good News.  And know they may come at unwanted times when you would rather be doing something else, but the sacrifice will be worth it.  There is nothing more beautiful than sharing the Good News with someone who has never heard it or truly understood it.

© Jim Musser 2017