Now that wasn't so hard.

-by Christy Fitzwater

I was checking out at the grocery store, and the cashier said, “I saw that movie.”  At first I didn’t know what she meant, but then I followed her eyes and realized I was wearing my October Baby t-shirt, a movie about a young woman who looks for answers in her past and hope for her future. 

I gave the cashier the money for my groceries, and we chatted superficially about the movie for a second.   

As she handed me my receipt, I realized my t-shirt had given me a perfect opportunity bring God into the conversation, so I quickly tried to think of something to draw God and the movie together. 

It’s really good to see that God can take something hard and turn it into something good.  That’s all I said.  Her eyes held mine for just a second, and I tried to speak the truth of those words to her with that one look. 

Maybe telling people about God isn’t nearly, nearly as hard as I imagine it to be.  Maybe it only requires being always attentive for opportunities to speak.

for those who agonize over a soul far from God

-by Christy Fitzwater

In high school study hall Robert declared he didn’t believe there was a God.  And my grew-up-in-Sunday-School jaw dropped open.  I had never met anyone who didn’t believe in God before, and it pained me deeply.

So I started praying for him.  The condition of his soul weighed heavily on my own, and I could not stop thinking about him.  He made his declaration the spring of our senior year, and after that we went our separate ways.  But I never stopped praying for him –almost every day for four years.  His atheism was a sliver in my mind, the pain and anxiety for him always rising up inside me. 

I prayed and prayed and prayed.

Four years later I was working a summer job at a grocery store in my home town, and one day I was introduced to a new employee.  Robert.  My heart stopped when I saw his face, and the agony for his soul filled mine.

We were both getting off work at the same time, so I determined to have a talk with him.  Working up all my courage, I started to tell him I had been praying for him.  Started to tell him about God and hoped his heart was in a different place this time.

But before I could get it out he said, “Hey, I have to tell you something that just happened to me.”  He pulled a cross necklace out from under his shirt and told me how he had just chosen to follow Christ.

I just talked to a friend yesterday who was in agony for the soul of her family members who are far from God.  Tears filled her eyes as she talked about them.

Is that you?  Don’t give up.  NEVER give up praying.  Live in agony for that person, and continue to approach the throne of heaven with your request for the salvation of a precious soul.  Be miserably desperate in your soul on that person’s behalf. 

Never give up.  Dig in.  Get your feet planted, and be willing to spend years praying –if that’s what it takes.   

negative buoyancy

-by Christy Fitzwater

In Hawaii I floated on the surface with my little snorkel and watched divers swim deeper than I could see. 

According to Wikepedia, “Divers wear weighting systems…generally made of lead, to counteract the buoyancy of other diving equipment, such as diving suits and aluminum diving cylinders.”  Without lead weights a diver never gets below the surface. 

I watched Jesus put on a conversational weight belt. 

“When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’ 

“The Samaritan woman asked him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.  How can you ask me for a drink?’  (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 

“Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’”  (John 4:7-10) 

From a request for a drink to talking about God.  Surface talk to deep waters in 60 seconds.  Wow. 

What if…. 

What if I could do that in every conversation with someone new?  Snorkel talk and then with one weighty sentence going spiritually deep. 

How do you dive a conversation from banter to talking about God with one sentence?

stone cold

-by Christy Fitzwater
I came home after the Easter morning brunch and drove past four homes on my street before I got to mine.   

All of a sudden it struck me that most of my neighbors were outside.  One mowing.  A few kids playing basketball.  Did they go to an Easter service somewhere?  I doubted it.  But I didn’t know. 

For 10 years I’ve driven by my neighbor’s homes, and I don’t even know all of their names, let alone their spiritual condition.  How could I live by them for so long and not care?  What is wrong with my heart?

Peter says the Lord “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentence.”  (2 Peter 3:9  NIV) 

Everyone.   

God cares about the spiritual condition of every single neighbor I drive past, every Town Pump cashier, every Little Caesar’s cook, every hairdresser, every bank teller. 

Can I be really, really honest?  My heart feels indifferent toward these people most of the time.  I go right by them without giving them a thought.   

I’m on a personal mission to change that by doing two things.  First, I’m learning names.  Diane and Jackie work at the bank.  Kristi and Vickie work at Town Pump.  Christina sells me pizza.  Butch is the elderly man who lives two doors down.  I’ve purposefully learned all of these names in the last few weeks. 

Second, I’m praying.  Praying God will put the same feeling in my heart that he has for these peoples.   

Will you do those two things this week?  Learn some names and pray for a heart change? 

Get me outta here.

-by Christy Fitzwater

Everyone I know is a disciple of Jesus.

Which could explain why I’ve been struggling with sharing my faith.  I work from home, and my husband is a pastor.  My life is home-church-home-church.  All my friends have a relationship with Jesus already.

The church is such a noble place to invest one’s time, but I need to get out more.  I was trying to think of who I could tell about Jesus, and the only two names I could come up with were of the lady I buy milk from at the gas station in the early morning hours and of the girl I buy Little Caesar’s pizza from every Thursday night.  (Perhaps a sad commentary on my homemaking skills.) 

This morning I’m asking God, where can I go to get my life involved with people who need to know you? 

In T4T:  A discipleship ReRevolution, Steve Smith says, “Before, when I pastored the church, we said to people, ‘Welcome, our door is open.’  We prayed for people to come.  But Jesus said, ‘Go!’  It is very difficult to invite people to come.  People don’t know what your church is; they don’t know you.  They don’t know anything.  It’s very difficult to get people to come.  But Jesus said, ‘Go!’  I was wrong.  Instead of inviting people to come, I needed to go out and find them, to touch them, to talk to them.”  (Pg. 48) 

Our church has commissioning services for groups who go out to share the good news.  I regularly walk up to pray for these groups as they sit on the stairs at the front of the sanctuary.  I pray God will use them to share the good news of the Kingdom of God.  Groups going to Czech Republic, Haiti, Heart Butte, China, Mexico, Brazil, Washington… 

I think it’s time for me to sit on the stairs.  It’s time for me to say I’m going somewhere to tell people about Jesus.  Time for someone to pray that God will use me to spread his Kingdom news.  Except I don’t want to go far.  Just next door maybe.  Or to my hairdresser.  I need to find me a bunch of people here in my own town who desperately need Jesus.

Can you list 10 people you have a relationship with who need to know Jesus?  If not, where will you go to find some?