Share the Love #2: Living Free (Not Burdensome)

Oh the frustration of Monday morning! Four miserable hours wasted, trying to travel to another city and finally getting me right back where I started: at my own house. A Hindu woman sat next to me on my wasted bus ride. I thought, Okay, maybe God just put me on this bus to share the good news...maybe it's not all wasted time. I inquired about her gods and she informed me, "There are no living gods." I need to tell her Jesus is the living God, I thought. But, she just didn't seem to care to listen and I was so upset and ready to get off that dumb bus. Before departing company, we briefly exchanged phone numbers.

Five forty-five am the next morning I left the house again in attempt to go to the same city. Six hours on the train left my rear end aching, but relief that I had finally arrived. The whole trip I had busily chatted with the Christian woman seated next to me, and we also exchanged phone numbers before reaching our destination.

Praying the next morning, the Lord cut my heart as I read Psalm 58: "God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgment among the 'gods.'" Ouch...the Hindu woman from the day before didn't know Jesus was the living God, because I didn't tell her. But I don't want to go tell her! I'm so busy today! And she isn't going to believe...I could tell she wasn't a person of peace, I told God. He spoke gently to me the verse He'd been laying on my heart the previous week:

"This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome..."
1 John 5:2-3.

Grudginly, I decided to obey God and go tell her. I sure didn't want to, but surely it wouldn't be burdensome, right?

Inviting the Christian woman from the train to come along, the two of us went to the house of the Hindu lady that day (both women lived in the town I was visiting). Upon arrival, we chatted with the lady I had met from the train, as well as 5 other members of her family. Within a few hours, they had heard my own story of coming to know Jesus and the C2C story (the gospel in story form). It was actually fun! I had a great time sharing with them, and felt like they got a really good picture of the gospel. Some expressed interest to learn more and my Christian friend who went with me prayed for them and gave them her phone number to talk more.

What I thought would be miserable, actually turned out to be a really cool time. The Lord made me realize that even though I didn't want to go and I thought it was going to be a burden to spend my time there, it wasn't. It was actually more burden lifting and freeing because I went and shared! Looking back on the day, I realized that the struggle was not being obedient to Christ; my struggle was with denying myself and my desires to do something I didn't think I wanted to do. But, once I denied myself and went, I enjoyed the whole time tremendously! Being obedient and sharing was not actually burdensome at all, as I had feared. It was awesome to get to see how God had orchestrated all those meetings and let me be a part of it all.

And that's what it means to be a disciple of Christ, right? To deny myself and take up my cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23). I admit, I have failed to do so many times. But, how awesome it was when I did! And I know I still have today and tomorrow and every day hereafter to keep doing so. Here's to denying myself everyday, over and over again...

"This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome..." 1 John 5:3