God gives us opportunties to develop both long-term and short-term relationships when it comes to being witnesses of the one true God. Most of the time we are looking for those long-term relationships where we can get to know people personally as we share with them our life in Christ.
But sometimes God gives us a 1-minute relationship to point someone to Him. Or even 1-minute to encourage a fellow Believer. Maybe it is a banker teller, a waiter at a restaurant or in my case yesterday an airline employee at the airport.
When I know that I have just a moment with someone I try to find ways to enter into a brief conversation. And I use the most basic of questions: “How are you doing?” What is great about that question is a person’s response typically reveals if they are open to a brief conversation. Sometimes their tone and response says, “don’t bother me” and other times their response says, ‘I am willing to engage with you.”
And if they are open there is both an opportunity (even for 30-seconds) to proclaim the reality of the living God and to encourage someone that the living God cares about them.
Yesterday, my family and I were traveling throug an airport as we were heading home from a vacation. As we were checking in, I asked the lady helping us how she was doing. She paused and gave a thoughtful look (which meant she was taking the question seriously). And she then told me she had worked until midnight and was back at work at 7 AM and despite that short turnaround she was doing really well,
It was not just a casual response. She gave me some insight into how she was really doing. She could have said “I’m good” or “I’m fine” which is what we socially expect in those type of business transactions. But she gave me a real answer as if we were friends.
This then gave me an opportunity to say as we were fininishing up, “We are praying people. As we head to our gate, how can we pray for you?”
This is where she could have simply said something like, “Strength to make it through my workday.” By she didn’t. She thought again and then said, “You can pray for my family who is back home in Kenya as that country battles the coronavirus.” She then went on and talked a little more about her family. She also told us she believes in the power of prayer. I am not sure if she had a faith rooted in Jesus but she definitive received the prayer with thankfulness. I told her that we would definitely be praying for her and her family.
As we headed to our gate I had the privilege of praying for Millie and her family. I also prayed that God would use that brief exchange to reveal himself to her.
I will most likely never have another conversation with that woman, but I like to believe that God used my brief moment in her life to remind her of the power of God and our need for God. Who knows what other conversations God will bring to her today. Who knows if she needed in that moment another believer to simply encourage her as she was working long hours with the burden of her family on her mind.
But when we view those small moments as kingdom moments, we get the opportunitity to play a role in God’s divine plan that He is unfolding and orchestrating every day.
How can you be a 1-minute witness today?