True Evangelism

A secretary on the job is engulfed in problems. Her husband left her; a son is in rebellion; she can barely make ends meet. She cries out for help. We don’t hear.

A fellow employee is overwhelmed by the complexity of overcoming his chronic drinking problem. He longs for a friend. We’re deaf to his cries.

The owner of the gas station where we’ve traded for years has just lost his wife. His eyes echo his loneliness. We don’t see.

A wife would love to share with us the trauma and trivia of her day—just to have a listening ear. Our ears are closed.

Does that approach make sense? It seems to me it is time we acknowledged the fact that a good translation of the Great Commission has it reading: “As you are going into all the world....”

You see, we are in such a hurry to “go!” that we miss the very ones whom God brings into our path—“as we are going.” May God awaken us to the realization that true evangelism is loving the world the way God loves it; allowing our hearts to be broken by the things that break God’s heart; acknowledging that there is no dichotomy between “evangelism” and “benevolence”—that true evangelism begins with Matthew 10:42: “And if anyone gives a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you, he will certainly not lose his reward.”