There are those rare occasions when someone comes up to you with someone who is hungry for God and who wants to study. Everything is all lined up, the person has the desire and you just have to lay things out for them. It is always awesome when things work out that way. The problem is those cases are few and far between. Those situations don’t take much boldness. You know the person is seeking and asking the questions they need to ask and they are looking to you (really to scripture) for the answers. These cases don’t easily violate our comfort zone because that person has come into our world and asked the questions we should already know the answers to (with some exceptions).
Then there are the other 96% of times when outreach requires a lot more boldness than that. It requires boldness because in these cases we don’t have the advantage of them approaching us…in our world..within our comfort zones. We have to step out and walk into their world, initiate a conversation that may not be wanted and risk failure. We all know people who need that. Sometimes we are just about forced into the conversation. The situation is so urgent that we dive in because we know the window of opportunity is short. Maybe the person has a health scare or is at the end of their life so the urgency pushes us over the awkward/boldness threshold. We dive in because we feel there is little other choice. The problem is, being forced into boldness by the situation is also rare.
The vast majority of lost people we know need us to ask the tough questions but aren’t in a situation that will push us over the edge due to their circumstances.. They may not have a rare or serious health condition. They may not come to us and ask the way. Yet they still need someone to have enough love and boldness to take the first step. What has helped you get past that? What would you say to someone who knows they need to initiate that conversation but hasn’t found the boldness to take the first step?
