“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
+ 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Sound familiar? If you’ve been journeying along with me and my blog then you probably recognize this from my post In Weakness, Fear, and Much Trembling. So you’ve now read twice about Paul stepping out, not exactly with boldness or certainty in his ability to reach out to the people of Corinth, but rather with much hesitancy and… fear.
You know also from my earlier entry know that I am cut from much the same cloth as Paul was in that regard, typically being very reserved and introverted. But you can’t really make too much of an impact in the kingdom and on the hearts of others if you’re gonna sit on the sidelines.
Now certainly there are ways, and as spiritual gifts are dispersed some are more natural and relaxed in their ability to evangelize than others; that is truly their gift and it is to be celebrated. Should that cause us introverts to feel at ease and take an easy chair when it comes to evangelizing though?
Heh, yeah, you know the answer.
So what are us closed-off persons left to do? Glad you asked, too. The answer is truly quite simple: Trust God.
…Not that simple?
Yeah, for us (admittedly) weak-minded humans using our fleshly, limited brains, it doesn’t compute.
So then, how do we overcome a feeble mind?
Well, going off a word God had me share with a teammate the other day, let’s reflect on how a child comes to walk. I speak for myself and THOUSANDS of other childcare workers and literal BILLIONS of parents in saying that we would have loved nothing better than the children in our lives having learned to walk at the drop of a hat.
So now that we’ve had our little chuckle comes the reality of the situation; it takes time and trust. It’s tedious in most cases, trying, painful, awkward (especially if you’re the dad and you’re WAAAY up their trying to reach those little hands that are WAAAAY down there; the chiropractor made a killing off my me this last year!). But it starts with small practices and routines in trust that grow over time.
So now let’s carry that premise over to faith. (That’s where the title of this post gets explained!)
Isus te voli. What DOES that mean? Maybe you happen to know (any of my Serbian friends following my blog?), or maybe you can take an educated guess, but probably you haven’t the foggiest idea.
…Jesus Loves You
It’s the simplest truth. It’s the GREATEST truth!
So one day I tore a page out of my journal, tore the page into roughly 8 pieces, and wrote “Isus te voli” on each of them. And I grabbed my water bottle and out the door for our daily prayer walk through Sombor I went. I walked around that morning feeling empowered. In fact, the first person we encountered I felt led to by the Spirit, so I asked, “Engleski?” (“English” in Serbian). Sadly she shook her head ‘no’, yet did so with a gentle smile on her face.
And joy rushed into my soul- I had been bold! I had been faithful! Something I never foresaw myself being able to do!
I began go around, looking for opportunity as Holy Ghost led me. And with each person I asked, though they shook their head no, I still felt my joy increase. I was choosing to be faithful; to listen to God FOR ONCE rather than myself! The door was left open only a crack, but OH THE LIGHT THAT SHONE THROUGH IT!
And then I encountered a man along the street on my way back to the church. And I felt led, so I approached and said with a smile, “Dobar dan! Engleski?” He replied, “Ah, yes… a little.” Well, Sreten (that’s his name) knew a little more than a little! I showed him my little piece of paper with “Isus te voli” written on it and asked, “Do you know what this means?”
He translated, I smiled and took one more step and asked, “…What do you think of that?”
It turned into a WONDERFUL conversation where he opened up about religion and all manner of things about life in Serbia and himself- but the conversation had been started, and it carried on!
In fact it carried on far past the time I was supposed to get back to the church for the day’s work. I gestured a few times that I really did unfortunately have to get going, and as I did so a customer came up and engaged him in some haggling over the price of a painting. I didn’t want to be late, but he insisted I should stay a moment longer. I gave thought to apologizing and going my way, coming back perhaps another time, but I quickly flushed the thought right out of my mind.
About that time he finished his business and beckoned me to him. He then reached into his wallet and pulled out a business card and handed it to me and told me to call him, email him, or even visit him if I can. Well, I’m car-less and can’t make calls, but you’d better believe I emailed him and told him when and where he can find us!
As we parted I had told him about the church we are working out of here in Sombor. He was fascinated to learn there was a Protestant church in the area. I could read the hesitation that led to his eventual abstention from giving me a for-certain “yes”, but he said in parting, “Maybe… I will try to come to this church you speak of… someday.”
Pray for Sreten and pray for that “someday”, cuz Jesus (or rather Isus) loves him and is seeking after him!
If you don’t know where or even if you can start, just start small! You will fall, it’s no big deal. What’s important, though, is that you try, and then keep trying!
