Effective faith

One of my friend's father died last night after a really long bout with cancer. My friend didn't have the best relationship with his dad because he treated my friend's wife -- one of the sweetest people in the entire world -- like crap. But near the end, the wife and the father reconciled. He apologized and the wife, who is full of grace, just showed him love and forgiveness. the father has been in a coma for the last few days and she was by his side for much of it. He came our of it a few hours before he died and she was right there, telling him about heaven and the love God has for him. She walked him through the process of reconciling with God for the simple reason that her children, his grandchildren, loved him and wanted him to be in heaven. And so the old man made his peace with God with the woman he had verbally abused for many years, leading him literally by the hand into eternity.

Sweet story.

Here's the thing.

Lynda and I have been in relationship with this family for a long time. We love them to death. Sometimes they come to church, but because of their work schedules, about the only day they get to have together is Sunday, so the don't come to church very often. He's not really into church stuff, anyway. And she is really new-agey and into crystals and auras. You know, the kind of stuff that gives regular evangelicals the heebee-geebies. She also reads the Bible and teacher her kids what she learns. She totally has the love of God thing down. In fact, she has it down better than most of the regular evangelicals I know, primarily because she doesn't go to church very often and doesn't get exposed to all the extra stuff that comes from being washed in the modern rules of church.

She is a very effective Christian and lives out the great commission every day of her life better than most every other Christian I've ever known.

So my friend, who rarely goes to church, this week led a man, who has hated her for a decade, to salvation and eternal life with God. What did you do this week?