Death and Evangelism

A kind, older gentleman lived across the street from my family. I say “lived” because he recently passed away. We had superficially gotten to know him over the past few years that we’ve been at our house. He would often bring us fruit and my daughters really enjoyed seeing him. In return, we would take him desserts that my wife made. Sometimes my girls would walk over with me as we would deliver a treat. Our family really enjoyed him and we are going to miss him dearly.

The thing that haunts me is that I never sat down and had a real conversation with him. I didn’t truly know him. Most importantly, I don’t know if he had believed the gospel and I don’t know where he is currently. I do know he attended a church, but I also know it was a more liberal church in our area that most likely doesn’t preach the true gospel. I knew nothing about his faith except that he attended that church.

I can’t help but think how foolish I am for having never sat down with this man. Like we all can, I made excuses about being busy, having little kids to tend to, etc. But they were just that—excuses. We would bring him physical gifts, but I never took the time to talk about the best Gift that God gave the world. I can only hope that he had received the gift of Jesus.

I tell this story as a warning for us all. Many Christians don’t talk about their faith. We have a bad habit of keeping quiet about what we should be most excited about. It’s easy for us to talk about sports, politics, weather, and many other insignificant things that we deem important all the while keeping quiet about the One who has literally changed our lives and has the power to do the same for others.

We currently live in uncertain times, but even more so none of us are promised tomorrow. None of us know when we will be living our last day on this earth. We need to be people who evangelize. Jesus is the good news. He is the only hope in this life and the one to come.

I can only pray that someone else had that conversation with my neighbor. It weighs on me. It should have been me. I don’t want to make that mistake again. I’ve been reading a biography on R.C. Sproul and the title of a column he wrote keeps running through my head so that’s the title I will leave us with in regards to sharing the gospel with those God places in our path. “Right Now Counts Forever.”