A knock on the front door at 10.30am on a Saturday morning can mean only one of two things: it is the Amazon delivery man or a Jehovah’s witness. It was the latter. Did I need comfort? Read this magazine and it will tell me how to get comfort from the God of comfort – the patter was in full flow from the moment I opened the door. At a pause, I agreed with the guy – God was the God of comfort in my experience, the God of the Bible, God is the rock. Then I asked him “Can I ask you a question?”
“That’s a surprising turnaround” he said “OK!”
“I am interested in why are you a Jehovah’s witness instead of any other denomination?” They don’t have a good reputation (as Christians often don’t) and they must get a hard time with the door step challenge so I was interested why.
He talked about his parents’ faith, the love of the fellowship from John 13 v 35 and belief in the Bible. We talked about the importance of love – for those in a fellowship and for those who leave (I have heard stories of how people who leave are cut off – that doesn’t happen in our churches does it?) and his experiences in Africa. He asked about my church, where it is, what we do, so we also talked about that.
At the end, he said “Don’t suppose you want the magazine, do you? No. It is very rare to meet someone of faith who lives it out.”
It should not be rare, should it? I did not say anything clever or deep, I just aimed for a positive encounter with someone else of faith so he was left with more of a positive impression of a Christian than when he started the conversation.
We can all aim for that in our regular encounters with people, can’t we? Not hiding our faith but not pushing it onto others, just letting them know who we are, who’s we are and what that means for life with “gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3 v 15).
For the people who knock on our office door at work.
For the people who inbox / message us.
For the people who will knock on our front door at Christmas – the carol singers, the neighbours, the Amazon delivery man.
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