In Finally Alive, John Piper’s great recent book about the new birth, he says, “Be encouraged that simply finding people interesting and caring about them is a beautiful pathway into their heart. Evangelism gets a bad reputation when we are not really interested in people and don’t seem to care about them.”
Another way of saying this might be, “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (PHP 2.3-4). Look to the interests of others. Find people interesting.
For the past year I’ve had the opportunity to take an interest in our postman. Though I had a few interactions with him years ago (we were both in rock ‘n roll bands), he became our postal carrier about a year ago. He’s a cheerful, outgoing guy, and from time to time I’ve been out in the yard when he’s delivered our mail and we’ve chatted for a few minutes. He has a passion for basketball and has coached many girls basketball teams. He truly wants to inspire and encourage them and sounds like an amazing coach. He told me that former players often stay in touch with him years after they play for him.
Yesterday the doorbell rang and he was on my front porch with a couple packages that were too large for our mailbox. We spent a few minutes talking about his most recent team and the tournaments they played in. As we talked he mentioned his desire to always “do the right thing” as a coach, and even mentioned that he prays. So I asked him where he goes to church.
He told me he didn’t go to church and didn’t believe in organized religion, but believes in God and doing good. I asked him if I could take a couple minutes to share how the Bible says we can be accepted by God, and he graciously agreed. So I told him the gospel, and we talked about it briefly, completely amicably. And though he disagreed with me, he said he’d think about it.
As he left I thanked him for listening. He said, “Well sure! You always listen to me when I talk about girls basketball.”
John Piper says, “If you really find their story interesting, and care about them, they may open up to you and want to hear your story - Christ’s story.”
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