When I was the Pastor of a church in northern Indiana I had a neighbor named Ed. Ed was a bit of an aggravation to me because he didn’t keep his yard up very well and he let weeds grow in his flower garden. Thankfully my yard was fenced and it created a very neighborly boundary between our yards.
Other than the junk in his yard Ed was an okay guy and I made it a point to be friendly and engage him in conversation with the hope that a divine encounter would one day arise and I would be able to share with him what Christ meant to me. I felt like Ed and I were friends.
Sometimes I would hear a lot of yelling going on in Ed’s house. Sometimes there was some yelling going on in Ed’s yard. I was glad that I wasn’t Ed, that I didn’t live in Ed’s house, that I didn’t have Ed’s yard with junk in it, and that I had my family and my life instead of his.
Did I mention that Ed was a Jehovah’s Witness?
It finally happened. One Saturday morning, the only day of the week that I could sleep in, a knock came on my door. I got up and went to the door barefooted and in my bathrobe determined to get rid of whoever was at my front door. I opened the door and Ed was standing on my front porch wearing a suit, a pressed shirt, a tie, an overcoat, a hat, his best shoes, and a briefcase in his hand. You see, Ed had to perform some good works to try to earn his way into heaven.
“Ed, hey man, what’s up?” I said as I looked over his shoulder to see if I could see his car in the ditch because he must have surely been on his way to somewhere.
“Could I come in and talk with you for a few minutes?”
“Uh… well… sure… come on in Ed.”
I was starting to get a bad feeling about this.
You guessed it. Ed opened his brief case and pulled out some copies of Watchtower Magazine, the little Jehovah’s Witness pamphlet, and proceeded to ask me questions about my spiritual state. He didn’t ask me for the standard ten cents to cover the cost as others before him had. I started to squirm.
I said, “Ed, I’m a pastor, I love Jesus, He lives in my heart, you know that.”
He said, “Yes, but your Bible is full of errors and our Bible is correct.”
We bantered back and forth until Ed finally delivered his entire spiel. I was steaming. Ed packed and left. I said something nice to him as he left.
When I closed the door it hit me. I was Ed’s big fish “project”. He didn’t expect to win me over to become a Jehovah’s Witness but boy down at Kingdom Hall this story would play really well. I wondered if he would tell them I had my bathrobe on. I got angry. I felt used. I wasn’t sure I still liked Ed. For months prior to this we had talked over the fence in my back yard, we talked about kids, and flowers, and grass, and even the fence itself. He never said one thing about God; in fact when I would mention things about God he always quickly changed the subject. If he wanted to say something to me why did he have to dress up and bring his briefcase to my living room on a Saturday morning? What was wrong with a Tuesday evening while leaning on the fence?
You see, Ed wasn’t concerned about me – I was his project. I didn’t want to be like Ed so I wasn’t interested in any spiritual lessons from Ed.
The Holy Spirit spoke to me in that moment. People don’t want to feel like they are your project. They want to feel that they matter to you.
Here are some actions we can take:
-Pray for “divine encounters”. Pray that God will open doors of opportunity for you to share the love of Christ with someone.
-Preach the gospel to everyone you meet, and if necessary, use words. In other words, preach the gospel by demonstrating care and concern for others.
-Take the time to listen to people’s stories. You must be genuinely interested in others before you can impact their lives.
-Build authentic relationships with people and listen to them before you demand to be heard.
-Write down the names of five people that you care about and that you would like to have a divine opportunity to share Christ with. Then wait for the door to open – God will open it!
Listen to people because you care about them.
It is amazing. When you show people kindness and you have a genuine interest in them it opens a door for you to share with them the greatest treasure that you have.
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