Be sure of this, that if the home owner had known what hour of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore, you must be ready…. (Matthew 24:43-44)
A few years back, a young woman in a North Georgia town was suddenly thrust into the spotlight. An escaped criminal burst into her apartment and held her and her child captive. When the episode ended, the woman told her story to the world. During that nightmarish ordeal, she had talked to the man about the Lord and read to him from one of Rick Warren’s “purpose-driven” books.
Every media person in the country reacted the same. Here was an attractive single woman frightened out of her wits doing something truly courageous. What kind of person is she?
So, they delved into her background.
The reporters found she had a checkered past. But at some point she had come to know the Lord and would tell anyone who listened how Jesus had changed her life.
The young woman was an incredible witness. And she had done nothing–absolutely nothing–to prepare for her moment on the world’s stage. She was authentically Christian and the Holy Spirit did in her exactly what Jesus had promised. “Do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say.” (Matthew 10:19)
Her testimony quickly catapulted Pastor Rick Warren into the spotlight, a place he had already grown accustomed to. And because he always seemed to stay prepared for whatever the Lord had in store for him that day, Rick was ready and seized the moment.
Hundreds of people will be in Heaven as a direct result of that woman’s ordeal and her amazing testimony. And, to no one’s surprise, Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life, sold an additional hundred thousand copies. Heaven alone knows the fruit all of this bore.
On ill-fated September 11, 2001, when Islamic terrorists took down the World Trade Towers and the four ill-fated airliners crashed, within hours the media was interviewing every person related to each aspect of this world-shaking event: the families of the victims, the first-responders, architects, politicians, and anyone who had seen anything. No one had time to prepare for the cameras and microphones and the print reporters.
Okay. Pause and reflect on that a moment.
No one knew this day was coming. No one prepared. It was the ultimate happening.
When we know in advance the world’s attention is about to focus on us, when we know in advance the media is coming–even the Christian media which will be considerate and responsible in its reporting–we are given a gift. We have time to prepare our thoughts on what we want to communicate and time to ask the Father to clear our minds and use our words.
Bottom line: We have no way of knowing when we rise in the morning what the Father has awaiting us later in the day. That’s the joy of the Christian life, of course.
And, let’s be honest–it’s the frightening aspect of the Christian life too!