When I came to faith in Christ and my life began to change, the Lord gave me a real heart for lost friends.  All of mine but one were lost.  One in particular was my hunting, fishing, and dating friend from high school named Bill.  I couldn’t wait to get home so I could talk with him about Jesus.  The week before I went home I prayed daily and had some church friends do the same.

             When I got to Tallahassee I went to his house and asked him if we could go to his room.  He sat on his bed and I sat on the floor.  I began saying something like, “Something has happened to me, and although it is new it is also really wonderful.  I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, and He is truly changing my life.”

             The look on his face changed from pleasant to not so pleasant.  He looked at me and said, “Why are you telling me this?”  I said, “I don’t know.  I know your family is Baptist, but we have never discussed Christ in any way, so I figured you were Baptist like I was Episcopalian – in name only.”  “Well, I’m not.  I’m ok.”  It was pretty much the end of the conversation, and it put a real chill on our relationship for quite a while.

             Surprisingly enough I didn’t feel like a failure at the time, although the strain hurt me because Bill had been a friend of mine since cub scouts (and we still are friends.)  I did feel like I had done what the Lord would have me do and that I needed to leave the results to God.  With occasional twinges of regret, that’s what I did.

             Can you imagine the joy several years later when I heard from him that as a law student in Birmingham, Alabama, he had prayed to receive Christ? Now we were brothers in Christ.  It was also a real relief because all signs of the strain between us were gone.

             I remember at the time thinking it could be difficult to win a friend to Christ who had done so many non-Christian things with me and who would remember me much more in that light than he would in the new light of Christ and that if it put a strain on our relationship or indeed if I lost a friend but he eventually came to faith in Christ, it would be worth the strain.  I think that was the right calculation. Sometimes I think that I and the rest of us take the other side of the calculation – that I would rather maintain a friendship than alienate someone even for a time by seeking to share my faith with them.

             I hope you are thinking about who you can share your faith with, that you will share prayerfully, and that you will leave the results of your sharing to God.  God bless you as you develop the harvest mind and as you apply it to the people God has put in your life.