He didn’t have to

From Katie: While I’m in Chicago representing Prodigal Magazine at Story 2012, I asked Tara to share about a time she got to worship in an unconventional way. If you want to share your story, shoot me an email and let’s start a conversation. Be sure to check out Tara’s blog and find her on Twitter.

He didn’t have to do it.

I kept thinking this over and over again. I haven’t known him for that long and the conversations we’ve had have not been that in-depth.

I walked for at least 45 minutes to get to my church. I needed to talk to my pastor and my phone was broken so the only way to do that was to get to the church. Without a car, walking is the only option. I happily walked those 45 minutes because I was on a mission.

My mission? To ask him how to share Christ with a woman who is dying of cancer. How do you tell someone that if they don’t accept Jesus, they’re going to hell? How do you tell them that the love they’ve been searching for all their life is Jesus Christ who made a way for them that they haven’t really used? It’s a sensitive subject for sure.

I got there 15 minutes early and waited for him to ask me to come to his office. He came out early and then we talked. After talking about sharing Christ with her, he finally asked me if I would like him to come along. I quickly said yes (I’ve never done anything like that before… so to say I was a little scared is an understatement).

He didn’t have to do it.

He cleared a couple of things up about how to approach this and then we were on our way. When we got there she was not responsive.

Cancer had taken its toll and the only person we could talk to about her salvation was her husband. We discussed faith with him and soon we were leaving. He assured us that she went to church when she was younger and had accepted Christ. I silently prayed for God to save her (if she wasn’t already) before she left this earth.

She died that night at 12:00am.

I learned a lot through that situation, but one of the things that made me stop and praise God was the fact that my pastor, who doesn’t know me that well, nor I him, would drop everything he had to do to help a girl who didn’t know what to do.

You may be thinking, well that’s his job isn’t it? I’ve had many different pastors and I would say that none of the others would have done that. Not to say he’s any better than them, just that it might not be part of   his “job.”

To say “no” to ourselves in order to help another, that’s love. That’s worship. That honors our Father. Worship isn’t always about singing a song in church or doing the “traditional” things. Sometimes it’s stopping your routine to help another.

Be blessed!

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