Saturday, April 12, 2008

Faith like a Child

I was recently at a live radio broadcast of Mike and Mike in the Morning, which is pretty much the best radio talk show ever made, and I met an extremely interesting 10-year-old girl. Not only was she bold in approaching anyone she met in lighthearted conversation, but she also was not the least bit afraid to make her faith in Christ known to the world.

The girl, whose name is Anna, took a liking to me and told me countless stories during the five-hour period we were there. She told me all about a community theater play in which she was involved, what her favorite hobbies and books were and other things of the sort. It was precious. Little did I know, she was going to say a few things that would stick with me far longer than anything else I heard that day.

Anna was doodling when, all of a sudden, she gasped and said: "Oh, dangit!" I asked her what was wrong, and she responded with: "I forgot my tracts. You see,
Greeny is Jewish, and I was going to give him one." Greeny is Mike Greenberg, one of the co-hosts of the show. The two Mikes are very approachable and encourage fans to come up between breaks and sign autographs and take pictures with them, which of course I did (as you can see). But this little girl wanted to do more; she wanted to spread Jesus to them. I was amazed with her determination, and then she astounded me even more.

When talking about her role in the play, she said: "You know, I think it's a God thing that I am in this." Being almost shocked that such a young person could say such a wise statement, I asked her to explain why she thought that. She came back with this reply: "Well, my grandmother is flying in town to see me in the play, and it gives me a great opportunity to minister to her, because she is also Jewish."

Wow! A 10-year-old child was so excited to see her grandmother so that she could tell her all about how Christ died for the sins of the world, and she was openly sharing this with somene she had just met! I was rather inspired. But, she wasn't finished just yet.

As we were leaving when the show was over, the girl said: "I take it you know Jesus." I told her that was correct, and she asked me: "Is there anything I can be praying about for you?" Still impressed and astounded by her frankness, I told her she could pray for me to have wisdom and discernment in making some big upcoming decisions and asked if I could pray for her in any way. "There's nothing too big. I am really content and at peace right now, but I guess you could pray that I would remember all of my lines in my play!" Of course I could do that, I told her.

Later in the day, I was thinking about what it is that holds so many of us back that we cannot be as determined as Anna in sharing Christ with others? Why are so many of us fearful? Are we afraid that we will be judged too much? Or do we get anxious at the thought of rejection?

The fact of the matter is that, if a 10-year-old girl with the heart of a servant of Christ can pursue Him so much and in any situation, we all should be able to do the same. There should be no fear. We have the Lord with us, and that's all we need. Anna understands that. I just hope that soon so many others will take on the pure and passionate faith of a child and tell anyone, including famous sports talk radio personalities, about the love of Jesus, Savior of the world.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Natalie,

Thank you so very much.

Amazed by Anna myself...

Her Mom

Robin said...

How beautiful! Jerri you are doing a great job!

Jan Parrish said...

And a little child shall lead them.