A God Appointment
Yesterday, I had the most amazing experience. I went to have my hair done at what I thought would be an ordinary appointment with my hairstylist. But God had something very different in mind. I was expecting the normal fun of coffee and magazines and friendly chat with Tim* as he did my hair, but this time was far from normal and far more fun.
As we talked about work and holidays and movies, Tim mentioned The Da Vinci Code. “Have you seen it, or read it?” he said. “No,” I replied, “but I have heard all about it.” Then he said something intriguing. “Jesus is a very big interest of mine.”
“Are you a Christian?” I asked.
“No, I am not” he replied matter-of-factly.
“And yet, Jesus is a big interest for you” I queried. “How do you mean?”
“Well, so much of our culture is based around Him. I am just really interested in His life … whether He married and has a bloodline.”
“I don’t believe He did” I said.
“You don’t?! How do you know?” Tim asked interestedly. And that was it. God launched us into this amazing discussion about Jesus and spiritual searching for over two hours! From the basin to the heated tongs we talked about everything from why Jesus died on the cross, to the subject of the afterlife and the New Age and the feeling of guilt that people carry.
Tim is resolute in his own spiritual path and so he did not change his views by the end of our talk, but what was so good was that we could talk very candidly about Jesus. God assures us that His Word “shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” Isaiah 55:11. What an amazing thing. Our God is magnificent.
This experience was out of the ordinary for me and I’ve realised that I don’t want it to be out of the ordinary. It seems that telling people about Jesus is our most important job description as Christians, and yet, I ask myself, how often do I talk to people day to day about Him? Not often enough, I’ve realised, and so I have started praying for these opportunities.
The other thing I learnt from this appointment at the hairstylists’ is that, with God, I can expect the unexpected. He can provide opportunities to talk about Jesus at times, and in situations, that I may not anticipate. Be prepared in season and out of season, the apostle Paul tells us.
It truly was such a blessing to talk with this man about Jesus. No work compares with that joy and privilege that we have as Jesus’ ambassadors 2 Corinthians 5:20 and as ministers of reconciliation 2 Corinthians 5:18. To point a person in the direction of a God who loves him so passionately and longs for him to know Him.
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have 1 Peter 3:15.
Excellent post and so true. I’m continually reminded about the verse where Jesus says that if we are ashemed of Him here, He will be ashamed of us in front of the angels and while some may not worry about that overly, I do as I cannot imagine anything more deeply saddening to consider – where others around you on that day may be getting crowns and honour you could be relegated off to some spiritual depths of contemplation to ponder on how you could have behaved differently here. While there is no judgement for sin for those who are saved, we are absolutely going to be judged by JESUS for those things we’ve undertaken since been saved and the words we’ve spoken (or not as the case may be) and thus need to take what He says seriously and not ignore such things until too late. We also cannot force such interactions with others for such is empty works but as you rightly say He will absolutely ensure HIS word (not ours!) will not return void and thus we need to have scripture fully planted in our hearts and memorised to best usage. Blessings, TKR :)
Great story. Glad God gave you the opportunity to share your faith. Good you took advantage of it.
We often overlook the many chances we have to share our faith with people. Im glad you didn’t! May God keep blessing you to change many other lives!
Thanks so much to each of you for your encouraging thoughts and comments. It’s so true that God provides many opportunities to share our faith and how important it is to make the most of those. It’s great to hear from you and may God bless you.
Many times I seem to forget that we are created beings with a thirst for the spiritual.
In an age of rampant secularism and materialism, its easy to think of those around us as not interested in spiritual aspects of life.
But the number of cults, false relgions, false teachers,false prophets,psychics etc, and thier many strange ideas about God tell a different story about many in our society which are are deeply spiritual yet deceived.
Hopefully God can use a movie with strange ideas about his Son to pique thier curiousity and use us to lead them to the truth.