Haaave You Met...

Perhaps you've seen the show How I Met Your Mother on CBS. I won't say it's the cleanest show or recommend it to you, but from it, I found an analogy to something God has truly been teaching me. On the show there is a character named Barney and he is quite the womanizer. Then, there is his friend Ted and they seem to serve as one another as "wingmen" in picking up women. From the show I saw, apparently Barney's favorite way of helping Ted to talk to women is by randomly walking up to a stranger and saying, "Haaave you met Ted?" and then walking away. Ted is left to do the work, but the ice has been broken.

Disclaimer: this analogy as it is extremely flawed, so bear with me. For me personally, I have a hard time introducing people to God. I think the reason I have such a difficult time is because I put the pressure on myself as to whether or not they will come to be saved. It's almost as if I expect that God has sent me out to tell the world about him, but has left me all on my own to do it. This makes for one pressure-filled experience. Because of this mindset, in all honesty, I have often shied away from telling people about Jesus or asking people to church. My excuse has been that if I don't use the perfect words or if the church service isn't exactly what they need to hear, then they will never come to Christ and I will have failed them and their soul. Am I the only one who does this? The only one who tries to make everything perfect for someone to come to Christ?

But the truth is, people aren't perfect. There is no such thing as a perfect situation to disrupt and completely change someone's life with the Gospel. And even more so, when we focus so much on having the perfect words, we will either never step out and speak for Christ or we will and it will sound rehearsed and ungenuine. As bad as those things are, I don't even know if that is the core issue. In the end, I think it comes down to a matter of personal pride and trying to take God's place. When I use this excuse it is often because, deep down, I am trying to take on the role of God. It is as though I assume that only through me can this person come to know him, and that, dear friends, is blasphemy. I am not the author of salvation, therefore I cannot determine whether the words I use or the church service I attend will convict someone and cause them to examine their life and hand it to God. Only God can do that.

Paul had this issue in reverse with the Corinthian church. As I sometimes think it is myself alone who determines whether or not someone will come to Christ, the Corinthians were giving Paul and Apollos the glory for leading them. And they were quickly corrected. Check it out:

"For when one says, 'I follow Paul,' and another 'I follow Apollos," are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe-- as the Lord has assigned each to his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God is making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God's service; you are God's field, God's building" 1 Corinthians 3:4-9.

You see, we and our work are nothing. Do we need to labor for Christ and do as we're called? Of course. We are his servants, meant to present the Gospel to the world according to our own gifts. But when we begin to think that it is us who makes the seed of salvation grow, we are taking on the role of God. Only he can grow the seed and work on the heart. Our job is to introduce him to others and plant seeds or to work alongside those who are new in the faith and water them.

When I realized this truth, it put so much more joy into sharing my faith. Suddenly it wasn't about me knowing all the answers or being perfect, it was about me pointing to the one who takes foolish, prideful, perfectionists like me and gives them new life. Suddenly sharing the gospel wasn't out of fear and pressure, but out of joy for the God who works in lives no matter how messed up they are. Without the pressure of saving souls, I was able to take joy in the fact that I could introduce them to the only one who can save us and grow us. And I could rest assured that when I work to plant or water a seed, it is not my job to make it grow, that belongs to the author of life. So... haaave you met Christ?