Faith's Flight

This is the tale of a girl named Faith. I had the pleasure of encountering this lovely lass on my 12 hour flight from the dreaded LAX to Auckland, New Zealand. For the record, I am not one of those people who feels it is my Christian duty to evangelize everyone within a 3 seat radius of me on a plane, but this was a divine appointment, and I do like to keep my eyes open for those. She was seated next to me, so we promptly ignored each other for the first couple of hours, each watching our own chick flick on our own private screen like the 21st century young people that we are. But guys, there were free movies and everything for the entire flight; it was really exciting for my life. On the next flight I watched The Fault In Our Stars... again.

Anyways, eventually the flight attendants began serving dinner, so we paused our movies. At this point in my journey I was keenly aware of the fact that I was going on this trip for God and wanted to make myself available to be used by Him even before arriving at my destination, so I began a casual conversation by asking if Auckland was her final destination. This opened the door far wider than I ever could have imagined. She is in her early twenties and we hit it off really easily and, honestly, during the few hours that we talked only about 10 minutes was superficial conversation. We talked about the preconception in America of needing to attend college directly after high school and how limiting that can be for young people. We talked of the importance of experiencing many different cultures and how one can learn from each. Then we talked about relationships, which obviously led to me talking about my beloved Timothy (see what he's up to here: swingprayer.blogspot.com) and how while I'm in Australia he is doing a similar program in Jamaica. Which prompted the obvious question of, "how did you two meet?" And that is how it all began. (This is not the first time someone asking that question has begun a life changing conversation, just ask my good friend Andrew the Direct.)

Side note, one of my favorite things about my relationship with Tim is how talking about him so easily leads to talking about God, and vice versa. I am convinced this is the way things should be. But back to Faith.

The answer to that question is, "worship night." Now until this point I had attempted to more or less leave God out of the conversation in order to not be that annoying person who cannot have a conversation without talking about the love of their life. However, I'm really bad at that. This was clearly an open door, so I waltzed right through it. She asked if I was religious and I said that I honestly considered it to be more of a relationship. 

Then, while being clearly guided by the Holy Spirit, I proceeded to detail all the exciting things God has been doing in my life right before my departure. Including Andrew's testimony about his radical come to Jesus thanks to asking that exact question while swing dancing. She was fascinated by my living relationship with Jesus and all the amazing things He has done in my life and the lives of those around me. It is so true that us simply sharing our stories of how God has shown up in our lives is the most powerful thing we can tell anyone. From what I could tell she had never before met someone who was genuinely in love with Jesus, which really saddens me that there are so many people in the world who have yet to encounter Jesus or someone who can reflect Him well. But I was glad that I had been able to be that for her on that flight. 

I had the privilege to pray blessing over her and gave her a LOT to think about. At one point she asked me if I thought she was going to hell. "Well, yes." I had no choice but to reply, "I wish that wasn't true, because I really like you a lot as a person. But you deserve to hear the truth, and the truth is not always convenient. The thing is that in the Bible it says that when Jesus denies people entrance to heaven He says, 'Away from Me, I never knew you." The point is that Jesus wants to KNOW us, and for us to know Him. He wants a relationship. At this point, He has done everything to extend an invitation to you, and you have been rejecting Him. Why would He want to spend all of eternity with someone who not only didn't want to get to know Him and spend time with Him, but rejected Him straight up? That is what it would be like if God let you into heaven because you 'were a good person.' But right now the invitation is still available. He loves you and is in a relentless pursuit of a relationship with you. What is your response going to be?" 

Now it would be super awesome if I could tell you that then and there over the Pacific ocean she chose to enter into relationship with Jesus, but that isn't the truth. And sometimes the truth isn't convenient, even for me. But I made a friend that night when I felt entirely alone in the universe, and I am so grateful. It was a beautiful start to my adventure for God to use me so much to reach out and show His love before I even arrived down under. We exchanged emails so we can stay in contact, and I've been praying for her. She heard a lot of new information, and it was a lot to process. But I have faith in Faith, that she'll get to experience for herself how amazing it is to be in the most fulfilling relationship ever. Please keep her in your prayers. As well as me obviously. I'll take all the prayer I can get.