“Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’” (John 4:31 NLT)
While I have very little experience with farming and literal crops, other than flowers and a few plants we had in a small garden, I know enough to realize that harvesting in a timely manner is critical. To pick the ripening fruit or vegetables before they’re ready can be just as bad as picking them too late.
There’s a “window” of opportunity for harvesting that when forfeited or ignored can lead to eternal consequences. Yes, I’m speaking of the “harvest” of lost men and women in our spheres of influence.
Ron was a neighbor when I was a teenager growing up in West Virginia. I came to the Lord at 15 and as any teenager, I wanted to be liked and accepted. But I found that when I received Christ and began to make an effort to live in a way that was pleasing to Him, it put me at odds with some of the guys I’d been hanging with.
My friend Ron, while a professing “atheist,” became an unlikely advocate as he defended me in the presence of ridicule and badgering of the other teens. He was very intelligent and, honestly, I was intimidated to speak with him very much about the Lord.
We graduated from high school and went our separate ways. I went to college in Indiana, and he commuted on his small motorcycle to a school closer to his home. While home on a break I learned that Ron had been killed on his motorcycle, apparently in a hit and run accident. It saddens me to this day that I didn’t make more effort to help him find Jesus. I didn’t understand that harvest time has an expiration date, and we never know when that is, when it comes to someone who needs Jesus.
Like the disciples in the verse above, we get so enthralled by the task at hand, we lose sight of the “big picture” unfolding before our eyes. Jesus had had a conversation with a Samaritan woman who had come to draw water, that was life changing for her. She ran back into her village telling everyone she saw: “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could He possibly be the Messiah?”
As a result, the Bible says: “the people came streaming from the village to see Him.” Unsaved people who otherwise would have been unlikely candidates for salvation, like my friend Ron, were eagerly seeking an audience with the King of kings, but all the disciples could see was Jesus ignoring His lunch.
How like us when we go through our day with such “tunnel vision,” seeing only what we want to see, ignoring those around us who are desperately in need of the Savior we’re taking for granted.
Harvest is urgent business, especially when we’re talking about someone’s eternal destiny. We literally never know if the person sitting next to us on a plane or a bus or in a coffee shop is moments from walking into eternity. “But what should I say?” seems to be the reverberating question on our minds.
Jesus asked a woman to whom, culturally, He should never have addressed: “Please give Me a drink.” What if you took a few seconds and asked the Lord: “Lord, open my eyes to the opportunity you’ve put before me; open their heart to receive what you’ll give me to say; and open my mouth to be your voice to this specific person.” Then just be obedient.
What you say to open a conversation doesn’t have to be earth shattering. I’ve said to someone, “You look sad, is there something I could pray with you about?” Or on a plane I’ve asked – and you may want to write this down, it’s DEEP – “Is __________ (wherever the plane is headed) your home or are you just visiting?”
Let’s look at this more closely tomorrow.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 