Fishing At the Courthouse

Jury Summons. Two words that usually provoke groans and feelings of dread amongst many American citizens. For Christians, however, jury summons can be looked upon not only as a great way to serve in our country's judicial system, but also an opportunity to be a light in a complaining world.

Today was the second time I was summoned to a courthouse downtown in order to provide jury service in my city. I went prepared with stacks of Gospel tracts and prayed that the Lord would provide an open door to speak with someone about salvation.

As the day went by, I was able to give out a few tracts here and there, but a one-on-one conversation with someone about the Gospel didn't look like it was going to happen. Various people with whom I tried to build relationships already claimed to be Christians.

Towards the end of the experience, as the attorneys were meeting privately to make their final selections, and the group of us stood around outside the courtroom waiting, an opportunity finally came...and rather unexpectedly. A young man struck up a friendly conversation with me. We started out talking about jury summons in general, and then progressed into more personal matters like occupations, interests, and ambitions in life.

Some time into our conversation about every-day things, the bailiff overseeing our particular trial strode into the lobby where we were gathered and announced that the panel of potential jurors would be brought back into the courtroom in 8 minutes where the final selections would be announced. I thought to myself, "8 minutes...I wonder if I can share the Gospel with this guy in 8 minutes? Well, we'll see what God does!"

I asked the young man if he had aspirations towards a permanent future in the landscaping business he works in, and he in turn asked me if I planned to continue long term at the pregnancy center. I casually mentioned my desire to become a missionary to a Spanish-speaking country. We rabbit-trailed off on the subject of Spanish, and then he came back and asked me if I was specifically a Christian missionary?

I smiled to myself. Bingo. Open door here I come! :-)

"Yes," I replied. "What about you? Do you have a Christian background or a particular religious affiliation?"

He smiled kind of sheepishly, looked at the ground, and then mumbled something about how he used to go to church but doesn't anymore...he has his own beliefs now. With genuine interest, I asked him what his "own beliefs" are. He said he believes in a Deity...of some sort. He believes there is a God, he's just not sure if it's Buddha, Alla, the God of Christianity, or what.

I then asked him what he thinks will happen when someone dies. Again, a vague, I-don't-really-know answer: "Well, I hope there's something like a heaven...and I guess I think there's some place like a hell too."

"So what about you?" I asked. "If you were to die today, on the way home, where would you go?"

Another sheepish smile with a glance at the floor. "I don't know....maybe purgatory?...or maybe hell I guess...I haven't really been on speaking terms with God lately."

I asked him if he had ever considered his verdict in light of God's Law - the 10 Commandments specifically. He expressed a degree of familiarity with these and we started to go through them. It was hard for him to admit that he had broken them. He did admit to lying (a long time ago) and to committing adultery through lust, as Jesus defined it, but he thought himself pretty innocent on all other accounts. I shared with him about the verse in James which talks about how when we've broken one commandment, we've broken them all, giving the analogy of a chain with one broken link. He seemed familiar with this verse too, and agreed, stating himself that to God all sins are equal and one is not worse than another.

At this point in the conversation, I decided to get personal and share my testimony of how God opened my eyes to show me my need for a Savior when I was 14. I thought maybe it would be meaningful to this fellow, Jack, since my testimony includes the starting place of thinking myself to be a good person, trusting in my own works. I shared the Scripture verses God used to convict me of sin and to show me the answer to my search for truth about where I would go when I die. Jesus was the answer to my sin problem, and only through personal faith in His atoning death on the cross for me could my sins be forgiven. Jack nodded and said, "Yeah...yeah," quite a few times throughout my brief story.

Next, he told me that his past church experience included being a part of groups that "spoke in tongues" and he asked me what I thought about that. We had a great discussion on the matter, and it came to light that he understood the Bible's teachings on the matter, saw unbiblical usage of "tongues" in his circles, and basically left the church at that point. He mentioned it not only being unbiblical but weird and strange to him.

I asked him if his belief that all deities are basically the same God stemmed from a desire to be "tolerant" and accepting of everyone. He said yes. He had heard a notion somewhere that there is only one God and all deities throughout the world are that same God just in different cultural settings. Somehow that belief made sense to him and stuck.

"But how can that be, since there are so many differences in the belief systems and descriptions of these various gods?" I asked. "They can't all be right if there are so many differences."

He admitted he didn't really know how to reconcile this concept.

Since he seemed to have a familiarity with the Bible, I asked what he did with verses like Jesus' claim to be "the way, the truth, and the light," in light of this belief. He kind of chuckled and said he wasn't sure.

"Do you believe the Bible to be the truth?" I asked next.

"I believe it contains wisdom and knowledge," he replied. "It's got good ideas about how to live your life. Basic Information Before Leaving Earth is how I've heard it put. But I haven't examined the claims of the Koran or Buddhism, so I don't really know what those other books say in comparison."

"It sounds like you sure have a lot of "I-don't-knows" that constitute your beliefs," I said with a smile. He admitted to this with another sheepish chuckle and agreement with me.

"Here's something to think about," I said. "If what I believe (not because it's my opinion, but because of what the Bible says) is wrong, then I'll go the grave when I die and my whole life will have been wasted. But if I'm right, and Jesus is the only way to heaven, then when I die, I will see Him and be with Him in heaven. If what you believe is wrong, well, you'll be paying for a long time. Eternity is a long time to be wrong."

"Yeah, I've heard that before," he said.

"One thing I can tell you," I said to him, "is that God says, "Seek me and you shall find me." If you truly seek Him, and seek for truth, He'll reveal Himself to you." I dug around in my purse and pulled out the Atheist Test tract. "Here. Perhaps this will get you started on your journey."

He took the tract gratefully and immediately began reading it. As he did, the bailiff came back out and told us that it was time to reconvene in the courtroom. People in our group ribbed him about the projected 8 minutes he had mentioned turning into a much longer time (more like 20 minutes or so).

I smiled to myself. I knew exactly why those 8 minutes got stretched. That was a Holy Spirit stretch.

As I left the courtroom a few minutes later, having been dismissed from serving on the jury, my heart was singing. The Lord is so good! It was exciting to witness His answer to my prayer for an open door of opportunity to speak of Him...especially at a time in the day that was unexpected...and initiated by a young man that I never would have dreamed would be interested in discussing spiritual matters.

If you think of Jack, please pray that the Holy Spirit will draw him to a personal, transforming faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He seems like a young man who is searching for answers.