Who's on the floor?
While still a newspaper editor in Chicago, author Lee Strobel sensed the Lordtelling him to invite an unbelieving work associate to Easter services onSunday. He went into the man’s office and extended the invitation, which wasrejected. Lee tried to witness to him about the evidence of the resurrectionand again, the man wouldn’t listen still holding to his atheistic beliefs.
“Lord, what was that all about?”he asked. He said it bothered him a long time.
Four years later, Lee had becomea pastor, and a man came up to him one Sunday and thanked him for his spiritualinfluence in his life. Lee didn’t understand who the guy was, so the manexplained.
Four years before the guy wasworking on the floor tile when Lee came in to invite his coworker to Easterservices. Lee never saw him. As Lee explained the evidence for theresurrection, the tile man’s heart began beating fast and he thought , “I needGod.” After Lee left, the tile man called his wife and said, “We’re going to church onSunday.” They went to the church to which Lee had invited the other guy, and he, his wife, and his teenage son came tothe Lord.
When I heard this story, Ithought about times I sensed God leading me to do a particular thing, and itdidn’t turn out the way I thought it would. Sometimes a writing project doesn't have the impact I hoped it would, and I’ve felt as if I missed Godor that I did something wrong. In this story, Lee learned what God did in thatsituation with the guy he witnessed to, but sometimes we don’t, we obey andtrust the Lord is at work.
“. . . so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me emptybut will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it”(Isaiah 55:11). When we share the word of the Lord, we may trust as Isaiahwrites that God will accomplish his purpose.
Unseen folks in our sphere ofinfluence, those metaphoricallyon the floor, are listening to what we share about the Lord and His word. Theyare watching how we live out the truth of the gospel. The important thing isthat we’re obedient to what God places in our hearts. We leave the results tohim.
Ifyou haven’t seen the movie, The Case for Christ, it is a wonderful filmabout how Lee Strobel came to the Lord. I’ve had the privilege of havingclasses with Brian Bird who was co-producer and screenwriter on this scriptbased on Lee Strobel’s book. It is available on several streaming services.
Beverly Varnado's most recent book is In Search of the Painted Bunting, a middle grade historical from Elk Lake Publishing, #1 in new releases in its category. She is also the author of several small town romances from Anaiah Press including her latest, A Season for Everything. All are available at Amazon. To explore the web version of One Ringing Bell, please visit bev-oneringingbell.blogspot.comTo sign up for her newsletter, go to http://eepurl.com/dHNdsX Beverly Varnado copyright 2023
