06.21.2024
Hey everybody,
Last Friday Bonnie and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed to the Noland Trail with our dog, Fritz. If you haven’t been there, it is a beautiful 5-mile loop that crosses over the water with a series of bridges. The trail is also shaded most of the time, so even if the temperatures start to creep up, it never feels overwhelming. As you might imagine, in the course of a 5-mile walk we passed dozens of other walkers and runners. Some would nod, wave, or reply to our greeting with a “good morning.” There were others who were focused on their activity, or whatever they were listening to through their earbuds that they wouldn’t even acknowledge that we were passing each other.
But one guy on the trail engaged us in conversation. He was walking in the same direction as us, so we weren’t going to just pass him by…we were going to be walking with him for at least a few minutes. I think he first mentioned something about our dog. Then we started talking about how nice the trail was. He mentioned that he had walked the trail every day for more than 200 days in a row, rain or shine. That was pretty interesting to us. As we talked about his retirement years and his desire to remain healthy and active we discovered that he had learned about the trail while he was a patient at Riverside hospital, which is close by. He had stage-3 prostate cancer. He was currently cancer free and this opened up further conversations; with Bonnie also having overcome cancer. He pointed to his hat, which said, “Cancer Sucks” and said that he wore that hat most days that he walked the trail.
What he said next really caught my attention.
He said that he makes it his mission to talk to 3 to 5 people every day that he’s on the trail about cancer and he uses the hat to often steer the conversation that way. He passionately explained to us how important cancer screenings were and how his journey could have been so different if only he had had proper screenings. So, he wants to warn and alert others in hopes that some of the people he talks to will heed his warning and get their screenings so if they do have cancer, it can be caught early.
That’s not a bad mission. Talk to 3 to 5 people a day about the importance of cancer screenings. If he has been successful, he has probably talked to about 600 or more people this year about cancer screenings.
You know where this is going, right?
Don’t hit delete yet. This isn’t just a “you need to tell people about Jesus” message. It’s more than that. How has Jesus made your life better? Does life with Jesus give you peace in stressful times? Have your relationships with others improved as you have applied the teachings of Jesus to your marriage? Have you learned to work through bitterness and forgiveness in ways that have enhanced your life? Do you have a greater sense of purpose or mission in life? Has connecting with a community of people who love Jesus enhanced your life in ways that are worth sharing with others?
You know people who are lonely, or listless. People who are struggling in their marriage or in other important relationships. You know people trapped by bitterness or who are troubled and what they need is Jesus. Well, what they really need is someone who is passionate enough about what Jesus has done for them that they feel compelled to tell others about it. Imagine if all of us who say we love Jesus would have one conversation per day where we invite them to come and sit with us on Sunday. If we all did that, there would be a thousand people a day invited to Believers Church…seven thousand people a week who would have a chance to hear about the offer of Jesus to give them an abundant life.
See, you don’t have to drag someone across the line of faith, you don’t have to pepper them with awkward questions about life and death or heaven and hell. You don’t have to point out all the things that are wrong with their lives or remind them that they’re really making a mess of things. All you have to do is invite them to look at Jesus. Invite them to sit with you in church this Sunday. The guy in Noland Park didn’t take people to their doctor appointment or schedule their cancer screenings, he simply raised the subject and encouraged others to take a step. I didn’t feel preached to or shamed. He didn’t make it awkward or weird. He simply shared his story. We can do that with Jesus too.
Getting a cancer screening can help someone to avoid a stage 3 or 4 cancer diagnosis, which would be great. But the truth is, even if every person this guy talked to was able to avoid cancer, their lives would still end from something. Right? But a person who meets Jesus…that makes their lives better AND gives them an eternal life as well.
We are starting a new series this Sunday and it is the perfect time to invite someone to come sit with you.
See you and your guests on Sunday!
Pastor Jamey