Take the Stairs

To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. --1 Corinthians 9:22-23

I already know I'm risking being misunderstood, but please don't let it be because you didn't hear me out.

Ever seen a person who needs to hear about Jesus, but you ask yourself,  "Why in the world would they give me the time of day? Why would they listen to me?"

Perhaps you approached a stranger and they were put off by your "religious question". Admit it, you felt awkward just approaching them.

Hear me when I say that you don't have to do this with everybody, but I am discovering that the awkwardness can sometimes be eliminated if we took the stairs of relationship-building instead of the quick elevator to rush straight to the God-talk. 

Would the odds they will listen increase?

Could it be that the elevator is at times more about us "just getting it over with" instead of choosing to take the time to earn the ear of a lost person?

Caring takes time. It is a decision to work a relationship into the folds of our busy lives instead of crashing in from a helicopter, delivering the goods, and being airlifted before they know what hit them.

God can do anything He wants anyway He pleases. People do come to know Jesus through elevator talks and helicopter drops ; however, some, nay many, need the gentler approach of a friend over a stranger.

Bottom line: let's be just as sensitive to the Spirit's leading to take the relational stairs as we are to His nudge to take the elevator.

Talk About It: I was once led to reach a group of teens at a bus stop in my neighborhood. I was a 39-year-old mother. I had nothing in common with those teens. God showed me over that next year that a listening ear and a caring heart cause people to lay out the welcome mat on subjects that otherwise would be off-limits. Have you found this to be true?