02 December 2005

Ordinary Attempts

From the files of The OA Blog: "Just yesterday I was at the swimming pool, and a gal asked me to show her how to swim. We spend the next 30 minutes getting to know each other. During the course of the conversation, she mentioned that she has 4 daughters. I told her that I also have 4 daughters but that one is in heaven. I told her how our third daughter died in the womb at 20 weeks gestation. We went through labor and delivery and were able to hold her perfectly formed 5 inch body. Unfortunately, the hospital would not allow us to hold a funeral because they don't consider a 20 week old fetus a baby. But at church the next Sunday there was a beautiful spray of flowers left over from an elderly persons’ funeral and God's Spirit mentioned to me, "Those flowers are also for your daughter, Catherine, she is in heaven with me now." This almost brought tears to my new friend's eyes. When we left the gym, she gave me her business card and asked me to stay in touch. It was so nice to feel free to get to know her without feeling like I needed to bring up the subject of where she will spend eternity."

I'm totally right at the same place as the woman who shared this story. Thanks to the people at Off The Map for their innovative approachs to evangelism. God has never forced or pressured anyone to believe, so why do we sometimes think that's a good approach? Don't you think we need to spend a lot more time praying and then living His love, instead of just preaching it to others? Let's think thru this.

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