Unknown Witnesses

When I went to Asbury College back in 1968, I was not just a border line skeptic, but one with credentials.  For one who had such a powerful moment of beginning with Jesus my last year in high school, I had taken a hard turn away from the way I had set out.  Maybe it works that way for many of us, but there was not much about me in those days which would make Jesus smile.  Yet, I had not thrown away faith in Christ, I was just a lousy Christian.  Somehow those two words do not seem compatible, but it describes how life was in those days.    

I arrived at Asbury determined that none of the spiritual life of the school would touch me.  But, it was also in those days that I was blessed with the ministry of some men who touched my heart.  J. Edwin Orr came to preach a revival and began to open up my heart to the work of the Holy Spirit.  E. Stanley Jones came preaching with a contagious spirit and three fingers lifted in the air to communicate, "Jesus is Lord!"  And a gospel singer named Doug Oldham came and sang with such a powerful spirit that I carry around his songs and voice to this day.  There were others, but these stand out as those whom God used to begin the work of shaping my heart to receive what He wanted to do in my life.     

To remember these men who never spoke to me personally, but ministered powerfully to my heart makes me wonder if there are those out there in my past who caught a hint of the presence of Jesus through my life and ministry.  I pray such happened, but then we all have that hope.  What is true for most of us is that the influence we might have had on someone in terms of their faith in Christ is mostly unknown.  It worked that way for us as we moved down the road of faith and surely there are those on the road somewhere behind us who remember our name and witness with a portion of the gratitude that we have for the saints who have touched us, shaped us, and enabled us to move on toward a deeper relationship with Christ.