CRM Empowering Leaders

You’re walking through a park and as you pass by an Indian Sikh he says, “I can see you’re very lucky. You have a lot of luck.” You smile and keep walking, but he locks eyes with you and says, “I can see on your forehead you’re very lucky.”

What do you do? Do you smile and keep walking, or do you wonder if just maybe God sent this person to speak to you?

This is the lesson my wife and I are learning as we speak to people about Jesus in London. God sends people to us all the time to speak about him, but often we aren’t aware enough to take him up on it.

In this case, I stopped—realizing that this was a spiritual man—and had a conversation with him. “You’re a spiritual man, are you?” I asked. “Yes, and I can see your luck. You have three things on your forehead that tell me you’re very lucky,” he said in a thick Indian accent.

“I know what those three things are,” I said to him. “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That’s my luck.” This was a bit of a test. I wondered if he would be put off by me mentioning Christian words. Many are here in London.

The nice Sikh man was unfazed, so I went on, “I’m a spiritual person too. What God do you follow?”

“Shiva,” the man said. “Does Shiva give you peace?” I asked. “Shiva tells me people’s luck. I see their luck in my third eye and sometimes they give me some money.”

I’ve had experiences in prayer where the Lord has told me things about other people, so I could relate to this man. “I follow Jesus, and he tells me things about other people sometimes too,” I said. “But Jesus also gives me peace, does Shiva give you peace?”

“Shiva tells me people’s luck,” he said insistently. I started to get the feeling that this man, who I would later find out is called Mr Singh, was not very peaceful. So I asked him, “Have you ever tried following Jesus?”

The question was a natural one at this stage of the conversation. We’d already acknowledged each other as spiritual people; he’d shared the benefits of Shiva and now I was sharing the benefits of Jesus. It wasn’t forced and it wasn’t awkward.

To my surprise Singh answered my question about trying Jesus. “A little,” he said. “I tried Jesus, but I can’t get a Bible in my language.”

I knew that Mr Singh was not a Muslim, but I also knew that many Muslims first encounter Jesus in a vision or dream, so I suggested to Mr Singh that he could try Jesus without a Bible if he didn’t have one. “When you meditate, ask Jesus to show Himself to you in your third eye,” I suggested. He nodded that he thought this was a good idea, and then I told him, “I can get you a Bible in your language.”

“Really?” Singh asked, genuinely interested. I took down his name and address and told him I’d send him a Bible. I found out that he needed a Punjabi Bible—easy enough—and we went on our way.

This is how we’re learning to share about Jesus here in Britain. If you read passages like Luke 9-10, God sends a person of peace that indicates who we are to speak with. Our role here is not to aggressively present the gospel to people who will endure it, but to seek out people who God is already working on—often they are already spiritual people—and to introduce Jesus as an alternative to what they’ve already found. The key is to be aware of who God is sending to us.

As we share what we’re learning here with others in Britain, it is amazing to see the excited response. Christians in Britain have lost their courage when it comes to sharing the gospel; it seems hard and intimidating. I felt like that for us not too long ago too, but when we realize that we can just pray for God to send someone to us, we are attentive to the people who seem to be engaging us. We just bring up that we are spiritual and ask people if they’ve tried what we’ve tried. It is amazing what God does, and it is a very liberating way to share our faith.

The next time you’re walking through a park or a shop or your office and someone approaches you for something, consider taking that extra minute to explore who they are and share who you are. Maybe you’ll be sharing about Jesus before you know it!

______
Colin Crawley
London, UK