Claire Percival writes:

Do I Know Enough?

‘What’s that?’ I asked Hannah, pointing to something in a church yard of ruins in Paphos.

‘A lump of stone?’

‘No, it’s St Paul’s Pillar.’ (Blank expression). ‘Do you know who St Paul was? He wrote some of the bible and was an early missionary.’

‘What’s a missionary?’

‘Someone who goes to tell others about Jesus, like Ruth and Noah’s families at Sunday School. But you don’t need to go to Papua New Guinea, or Latvia or Nigeria. You can do it at home, or at school or at work.’

‘But I don’t know enough!’ came the anguished response from a keen yet frustrated 4 year old.

‘That’s ok, we can read and learn more together. But you don’t need to wait until you know it all, you just need to tell people that Jesus is your friend and that he loves you and you love him...’

This whole conversation made me smile. Then it stopped me short in my tracks. After all, how often do I shy away from engaging in conversations because I feel that I don’t know enough? How many opportunities have I chosen to ignore? How many times have I walked away from a conversation kicking myself because I didn’t say enough. Or anything at all?

You see, we’re not all called to be missionaries, but we are all called to spread the good news of Jesus and his Salvation. We may not have the eloquence of preachers, but we do have the relationships with friends and families that lead to regular conversations and natural opportunities to share with them. We may feel that we don’t know that verse, or be able to quote that author, but we aren’t expected to be some mega encyclopaedia, rather we can be who we are…someone who has a living relationship with Jesus.

Matthew 22 v37-39 commands us to ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ and to ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ By simply doing what we can in sharing the good news of Jesus, we can show Christ’s love to those God has put around us.

Who has God put around you today? Pray that you might have opportunity to share something of the good news about what Jesus has done in your life with them.

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