OPEN OUR EYES AND SEE THE PEOPLE

I'm just like you. Just like you. I want to influence as many people as I can for Him....and everywhere I go there are more people. The question is, what am I going to do with them? What can I do about them without coming off as a Bible-pouncing radical who doesn't understand peoplehood?

Yesterday I was in the clinic for a treadmill test. The technician was 43. She was polite enough and I was wondering how I could break into this stranger's world. I asked how long she had been doing this work. She responded with 23 years. Ah, I've been a minister at my church for 32 years....time sure flies doesn't it.

That's how I know your name, she fired back. I used to go to Garnett. You wrote a book once because I bought it in the gift shop here in the hospital.....and off we went; talk, talk, talk. In this case all I had to do was knock on the most innocent of doors and they flew open.

Today I was in for an eye exam. Again a technician is working with me and I told her how glad I was to have someone who is so kind.....has she been doing this job long? She had only been there two months. She was from Atlanta. Her first husband died five years ago and left her with two children 6 and 3. She had remarried last Fall and moved to the strange city of Tulsa.

So I knocked on a door one more time and it flew open; Tell me about your first husband. I doubt anyone asks her that question much. She opened up. He died at age 41 of a heart attack. No warning. I could tell I had asked her a most honorable question...in her mind anyway. I asked about one she still loves. The conversation worked its way to church with my offer for her to call on me anytime she just needed to talk. A kingdom connection was made. She hugged me when I left and told me she loved me....as I did her.

I share these stories not to say that every time we open our mouths....glory of His work pops. Many times I knock on similar doors and no one answers; potential response lies mute. My message to you is that although doors don't always open it doesn't stop me (us) from tapping.

He runs the show. It is our job to mine for the gold. Often it is buried in the people around us.

Our job? Try.