House to house ministry was never easy work for me to engage in at any time, but I always found it much more difficult when looking into the eyes of people who expressed grief and sadness. The first time I spoke with Jillian I detected such sadness but she gave nothing away. She told me she had, “sort of heard of Jesus when I went to school,” but that was the extent of it. The school she formerly attended had ‘Christian Girl’s College’ attached to its name, but I had long since learned that this meant very little, in fact in most cases, it meant nothing at all.
Being conscious of that sadness in her eyes however, I gave Jillian a comforting Scripture in the form of a promise from Jesus, as declared in the gospels. Some months after, I re-visited her home and this time her mother came to the door. As I looked into her eyes, she too expressed sadness and grief, so once again I gave a comforting Scripture, telling the lady that it was a word from God for her. She looked at me with slight bewilderment, giving me the thought that perhaps she thought I was a religious nut case. Nevertheless, she thanked me and we parted company.
A few doors along from their home that day, I learned from a resident that the father and husband of those two people had committed suicide some two years earlier. He had developed cancer and saw this as his only way out. Twelve months on from there I was yet again back at Jillian’s home. This time I looked into three pairs of eyes expressing grief and sadness as they stood at the door – those of Jillian, her younger brother and sister. I delivered another message of comfort, this time offering practical help too. Their mother had recently been murdered.
It was most common for people to tell me that they doubted God’s existence, but especially so if they had been touched by tragedy. Brenda was an example of this. With eyes expressing grief and sadness, she told she didn’t know if God existed because her sister had lost two children some years ago. One child drowned and the other one died of an illness – both within nine months of each other. As she was telling me this she began to cry saying that, “not too many days go by when I don’t re-live those memories.”
It is always a time for sensitivity when people share their sadness’s. One must never be too quick to say, “The Bible says…………” but on this occasion it seemed very appropriate, so I mentioned to Brenda that the Bible tells us that God does exist, and that He is our refuge and strength in times of trouble, plus He will remove our doubts and fears if we are willing to trust and act on what He says Psalm 46:1-2. It was then that she shared with me that she went forward to give her heart to the Lord at a Billy Graham Crusade, “many years ago.”
On hearing that, I said to Brenda, “Then I believe you do know God exists. You experienced Him when they prayed with you at that time, but since then you have walked away from Him.” She expressed no words, but she nodded her head in agreement. I took the opportunity here to inform her that Jesus will never violate our choices, and if we push Him out of our lives, then as a Gentleman, He stays out and will remain out until we grant Him opportunity to come back in.
Mrs Hamilton told me that she too had doubts about the existence of God. She told me that her thirty-eight year old daughter and eleven year old granddaughter were on a train travelling between two large cities here in Australia. The young mother slept on the train, as did her daughter, some time after her mother. It is thought that when the mother woke up she sleepily went to the toilet. On doing so, she apparently opened the wrong door and fell out of the train.
The eleven year old girl became alarmed at her mother not returning so when the train arrived at the rural city for a train change, she went to the rail authorities who in turn called for the police. Firstly they telephoned Mrs Hamilton to ask if she had heard from her daughter and when she informed them that she had not, they then decided to locate a rail vehicle and go back up the track from where the train had travelled. Some distance away they found the young mother, deceased with a broken neck.
As a public minister I heard some shocking stories from people and that one sits close to the top of my list. Mrs Hamilton looked at me with large, open eyes which had “Why?” written deep into them. I said I did not know why and explained that neither she nor anyone else would ever be able to bring an answer that would satisfy her. My obligation was to give her a word of comfort, hope and assurance from the Living Lord who does know why, which is what I did. I prayed for her on her doorstep and asked God to reveal His reality to her and He did so.
I had just stepped on to the footpath after visiting a lady at the old people’s home when another lady came walking towards me. We had never met but she was looking at me as though we had. Whatever the reason she did so, I now knew that God was in this somewhere, so I stopped to say hello. Yet again I found myself looking into eyes expressing sadness and grief. I introduced myself and told her I was from a local church and then I mentioned what it was that her eyes were revealing to me. Immediately she began to cry.
She told me that it was the tenth anniversary of her twenty-one year old son’s death. Wiping her eyes and blowing her nose, she went on to say, “he was well one minute, and fifteen minutes later when I came into his room, there he was dead on the floor.” It was a sudden death and not due to drugs or any known disease. Then this dear lady said that she could no longer go near any church, because of the funeral service held for her son. I did not ask her to elaborate on that too much, but from what she told me I could not help but think that perhaps the ministry from that church had failed her.
Jesus said He is the light of the world. That means we who follow Him are to express His light – not darkness. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of hope (confidence, assurance) for the living – not hopelessness. The lady didn’t hear that message. The building where Christians meet is a place of celebration – it is not a mausoleum. The “church” building is not a place where one is compelled to whisper in case of offending God, neither is it a place where altars, communion tables, furniture, crosses, hymnals etc, are to be treated as though they too are gods, or belong to God.
These were some of the impressions that lady said she had of the “church” but she is not the only one. I met countless people out there who gave me similar impressions. An American Bible teacher whom I very much admire said, “There’s not a demon in hell that can touch the Word of God. But our tradition makes it of non-effect.” That dear lady was not touched by the Living Lord at the time of her greatest need and neither was she touched by that church’s traditions. But she was touched by the Word of the Lord the day we met. I saw that as I looked into her eyes. “The Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.” Psalm 9:9-10.