Let me start by prefacing this post with a bit of brutal honesty: the blog series you are going to read in the coming weeks almost got deleted before being publishing. Here is why: a friend of mine, a young man I’ve been working with and investing in was killed tragically in a rock climbing accident last week. Out of respect for his family and those who may know him I’ll call him Adam.
Death is always hard to process, especially when the person is young, but Adam’s death rocked my world for one reason in particular: I failed to share with Adam what this blog series is all about: sharing the gospel of Jesus.
I worked on various projects with Adam regularly for a couple of months this fall/winter. I enjoyed getting to know him, quickly realized that he didn’t know Jesus and purposed in my heart to share the gospel with him. We laughed together, we ate lunch together, we shared stories, we talked about God and what Reclaim is all about. But I never took it to a personal level by sharing the gospel with Adam, explaining his need for a Savior and asking him where he stood with Jesus. I could have. I intended to. I had opportunities. Why didn’t I? Here’s why: I thought I had more time.
I won’t lie – the past week has been very hard. I know God is sovereign and His plan to give all mankind the opportunity to surrender to the grace of Jesus in this life cannot be thwarted. God overcomes and redeems our screw ups all the time…so God certainly wasn’t surprised by my failure to proclaim the gospel or Adam’s death. Another young man I did share the gospel with told me he talked to Adam about Jesus…I take comfort in all of these things, but there’s a lesson God wants me to learn here.
At the end of the day I’ve realized there is an URGENCY to proclaim Jesus – to people like Adam, whom I might think I have plenty of time to share Jesus with. My goal in sharing this with you is to communicate my own weakness so that perhaps you might be encouraged and challenged to share your faith with a renewed boldness and urgency. “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Romans 12:9-10
I am so thankful for the grace Jesus gives to me, and I refuse to allow my failures to paralyze me with guilt. Yes, I know that God is sovereign, but I also know that He chooses to use you and I to share His salvation with the world. I want to be faithful with the opportunities He gives me. I want this experience to be a defining moment in my life, to ignite a fire in my gut to share Jesus with people as though it truly mattered. As one who sees people as Jesus did – as harassed and helpless, as sheep without a shepherd, as people who are lost and going to hell apart from the grace and salvation Jesus freely offers us.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be taking you on a journey God is taking me on, a journey on how to proclaim the most important thing in my life. The gospel of Jesus.
