Stories From the Field

Every day can be just like Christmas…

November 20, 2009 on 7:40 am | In Taxi | No Comments

During this time of the year I know that many of us take time to think about how we can use the “Christmas Holiday” to reach our friends and loved ones for Christ. But don’t forget that we can treat every day just like Christmas! Every day we can be looking for divine appointments with people that God puts across our path. Sometimes it may involve planting or watering the seeds of the gospel (1 Cor. 3:6). But as you know, sometimes God’s divine appointments may be merely “tilling the soil!”

Let me share one example from my own life recently to clarify what may be involved in tilling the soil here in the East. I trust it will stimulate your thinking in the area of pre-evangelism.

A few weeks ago after I finished speaking at a church in downtown Singapore, I got into a cab to make my way back home. On this particular night I was really tired (I had just spoken for 2 hours) and had no desire to engage the taxi driver in spiritual dialog or any dialog for that matter. Despite that, I told God, “Lord I’m really tired but if you want me to say something to this taxi driver, you will need to make it clear to me you are already working in his life and in this situation.”

I didn’t say much to this taxi driver but for some reason he started talking to me (to be honest, I wasn’t really sure of what he was saying to me as I wasn’t really listening very carefully since I was so tired). A few minutes later, I realized the taxi driver was saying some things that I don’t hear taxi drivers ever say on their own without me asking them probing questions. He was talking (for some reason) about how all people are basically good. Immediately I recognized that this was the sign I asked God for and so I started to listen more carefully. So I asked him, “Uncle, (this is a term we use in Singapore in talking to older men, even those we don’t know), do you really believe that all people are basically good? Again he repeated something to the effect that yes we are all basically good and amplified this even more. After he paused for a moment, I said, “Uncle, let me explain why I asked you this question by telling you a story. One day I was talking to my wife’s Uncle (who is a Chinese Singaporean) who is a Confucianist (a follower of Confucius) and reminded him that Confucius taught that man is born basically good. Yet I said to my wife’s uncle you would never know it by the way some of these old ladies push each other out of the way to sit on a seat on the MRT (Train).”

At that point, I told the taxi driver that my wife’s uncle laughed at what I said because he realized that there is something inside of us that, although we can do good at times, has a bent to do what is bad. I explained to him that I am a Christian and explained to him how the Bible teaches us something different about mankind other than what Confucius taught and pointed out this did seem to match with our experiences with people, if we were honest with ourselves. Realizing he was beginning to lose this argument (that all people are basically good), he did what many people do when the feel like they have bitten off a little more than they can chew, he changed the subject to something else that he thought could help get him off the hook and escape the pit he had somehow fallen into! “Well,” he said,” it really doesn’t matter because all religions are basically the same.” So after a pause in the conversation, I asked him, “Uncle do you really believe that all religions are basically the same?” He paused for reflection and then he repeated that yes he thinks we all do believe the same things. In response I said to him “Certainly I would agree with you that there are some things in every religion and culture that we all believe is right or wrong. We may all believe we should be kind and loving to others, but it is not in our similarities where we are distinct, but it is in our key differences. Then I said “Uncle, did you know there are some major difference between Christianity (remember I already told him I am a Christian) and all the other religions?” He paused for a moment and said no he didn’t. Then I said to him, “Uncle, my understanding is that Buddha claimed to point to the way, Mohammed claimed to be a prophet of God, but Jesus Christ is the only major religious leader who ever claimed to be God, then he proved it by doing three things: He lived a sinless life, he fulfilled prophecies written hundreds of years before he was ever born, he died on the cross and then rose from the dead. I asked him “Have you ever heard this before about Jesus?”

His goal from this point on seemed to be centered on trying to water down the impact of my statements about Jesus’ claims, so he ignored answering my question and immediately launched a different tactic. “No disrespect for your beliefs,” he said, “but I’m sure if people in Jesus’ day were living today and they saw modern day magicians, they would probably think they were God also.” It was clear in his response that he definitely had some hard soil that needed to be ploughed up before he would respond in a positive way to anything related to the Gospel. It seemed obvious now that this was what God had intended for me to do in this divine appointment. Again I challenged his assertion. “Uncle do you really believe that if people in Jesus’ day were living today and saw the magicians today they would think they were in fact God?” I continued, “Certainly they might not be able to explain how they do things, but would that be enough to make them conclude that they are in fact God?”

As he was pondering, I continued, “It seems to me that only someone who actually died and then came back to life (and so has the power over death) could make the case for this kind of claim.” I further pointed out to him that I know of a Christian magician who does many of the tricks that people do today (Andre Cole) but said during his performance that the kind of thing Jesus did in being crucified and rising from the dead is on a different level than anything magicians can do today. Now at this point he seemed unsure of what to say next, so for the first time in the conversation he kept silent.

While it seemed that I did make some progress with tilling the soil of his mind, it was clear that I would not make much more progress with him that night. The Holy Spirit would have to do a greater work on his heart before he would be open to going much further in this conversation. So I changed the subject and asked him questions of a non-religious nature to let him off the hot seat.

As I reflect on this experience I am reminded of the fact that every day can be just like Christmas. Every day we can and should look for those divine appointments to help others take a step towards Christ. Certainly this is something we should not forget as we enter to the Christmas holiday period.