A Magnet for Jesus

I have a friend who is a magnet for Jesus. She boldly lives her faith and people are constantly drawn to talk to her about faith. She doesn't have just a story here and there of someone she has talked to about Jesus. She has multiple new stories every week. She constantly challenges my heart to be more bold in sharing my faith.

Dee works around sick people. She has new stories every week about people she encounters on her rounds who ask her serious questions about life and faith and God. Some of these people come to faith in Jesus and some haven't yet but they all go away from meeting my friend with a memory that will stick in their hearts forever. Dee is like that! She loves big. She cares big, and it's easy to see that she's the real thing!

Recently she has been spending a lot of time hanging out in an intensive care waiting room because she has a seriously ill father. She told me a story the other day about an older gentleman who overheard (listened in) when she was talking to her husband while she sat in the ICU waiting room. This man picked up hints of her faith in her conversation with her husband. So when she hung up her cell phone, he went over and asked if he could talk to her. His wife is dying in the same ICU. She is a believer but he isn't. He asked Dee to go with him to pray with his wife. He asked her a lot of questions about Jesus and faith. He even asked if he had waited too long to become a believer. His fear is that Jesus won't want him after all this time.

Then this man went home to take a shower and change clothes. When he came back, he went searching for Dee. He wanted to tell her that while he was at home that he had asked God to please let him into God's family. He wanted Dee to tell him what he needed to do and pray to be sure he was in God's forever family. Of course, she did. She clearly and carefully explained to him how to know Jesus for himself. She helped him pray a simple prayer of faith. And then she welcomed another brother into God's forever family!

Dee also works with a lot of 20 and 30-something age guys and girls. Her stories about their faith journeys are amazing, too. Almost every week one or two or more of these young post-moderns come to faith in Jesus and join God's forever family just because their path ran across my friend Dee.

She's a magnet for Jesus!

I think I've discovered something about Dee - my friend who is also a magnet for Jesus. It's not that she has some magic in her pocket that draws people to her. It's just that she's real and her faith is real and she's always willing to take the time to share the Jesus she knows and loves with anyone she meets.

She was sharing the story of the man in the waiting room with her dad. Here he is - really, really sick himself - but he loved hearing the story of the man. He said to Dee, "Maybe that's the reason I'm here just so you could run across this man and point him to Jesus." I have a feeling that Dee learned to be a magnet for Jesus from her dad.

One of the times in the waiting room, the man came over. This time Dee's mom was with her. Dee introduced her mom to the man. He apologized for interrupting them and taking up their time. Dee's mom insisted that he join them and she (Dee's mom) talked to him about Jesus, too. I think Dee learned how to talk to people about Jesus from her mom, too.

It's a beautiful thing to see one heart at a time changed for God's kingdom! It's a beautiful thing to hear the stories of people coming to faith! It's a beautiful thing to know that a father and mother have modeled sharing their faith for their children! It's a beautiful thing to have a magnet for Jesus for a friend!