The saying is true: no matter who you are, there will always be someone who doesn’t know your name. Unfortunately for my husband—and his career, that someone is usually his wife. Inadequate or not, the Spirit was asking me to start a conversation with the man in the restaurant; and I am ashamed to admit that the answer I wanted to give was probably not the one that God wanted to hear.

As I teenager, I memorized a poem that began with the words: “Bless me heavenly father, lead me in your ways. Grant me strength to serve you; put purpose in my days.” For years I recited these lines daily, in the hope that I could pray myself into becoming the type of person God would use to make a difference in the world. Now, when I had a clear assignment—and an obvious answer to this poetic prayer, my initial reaction was to turn the divine offer … down.

Why is it that we are so eager to do God’s will until we find out what it is? On page 26 of his book Red Letters: Living A Faith That Bleeds, author Tom Davis offers this possible explanation: “Living out the gospel is hard work. It’s easy to talk about it. Any of us can sit in church and sing warm, happy worship songs that make us feel good. We can nod agreeably with the pastor’s wisdom. And sometimes we can even drop a few extra dollars into the offering basket. But it’s not so easy to actually go and do what Jesus said to do.”

As I sat there in the restaurant, I had to agree with Tom’s conclusion that “Jesus calls us to live in ways that go against our natural inclinations.”[i] I was definitely going against mine when I succumbed to the divine pressure to ask the man a few questions.

From the answers that followed, I learned that the stranger’s name was Dan. He was new in town and lived alone in an apartment complex about a mile from our home. Although I was interested in everything the man had to say, Katie and Hollie were growing more restless with every question. When it became apparent that it was time to leave—or be asked to leave—I helped the girls out of the booth and led them to the door. This time, I was the one stopping at Dan’s table to say (with a genuine smile) that it was nice to meet him.

As soon as I started to walk away, he put his hand on my arm and said: “Thank you for talking to me. I really appreciate it.”

I was startled, not just by the human contact, but by what happened next when I looked into his eyes and saw Jesus staring back at me. For years I've felt the Holy Spirit at work in me, but this was the first time that I saw God's son looking at me through the eyes of someone else. Why?

If Tom Davis had been at the restaurant, he might have led me to the answer as he told this true story about a little girl with a very big problem:

Put yourself into the figurative shoes (she has no real ones) of a five-year-old girl somewhere in the middle of Africa. Your father has died of AIDS and, after you've watched your mother cough up blood and shrivel to nothing for the last month and a half, she, too, is gone. ... How could you not feel abandoned?

What do you set your hopes in? You set your hopes in people. People who might show up and offer a refuge, a safe place, a home. People who are the living embodiment of Christ himself. People like you and me. People who can show, with the actions of their heart, that God has not abandoned you at all.

To conclude his story, Davis would stress that “God created every human being in his image, including people like this five-year-old girl whom the rest of the world has thrown away because of cruelty or neglect or indifference. God has plans for each of them to have hope and a future too. ... sometimes, it takes the touch of God-with-skin-on to remind us of that.”[ii]

God was calling me to provide tangible evidence of His existence, to Dan. As I considered my assignment, I was reminded of all the times I looked the other way whenever a teacher or conference speaker would ask for volunteers. Once in a while, I would accidentally make eye contact with the person asking for help and feel compelled to say “yes” to the request. This was one of those times.

“Why don’t the girls and I meet you for lunch one day next week?” I suggested. “If you give me your phone number, I’ll call you when I know what our schedule is.”

“That would be great,” Dan replied.

“We have family in town this weekend for Katie’s birthday party,” I added, “so you probably won't hear from me until early next week.”

Dan nodded to show that he understood and waved as I held the door for the girls. For the rest of the week, I couldn’t stop thinking about my experience at the restaurant. I was sure that Jesus had more in mind than meeting this person for lunch; I just didn’t know what.

The answer came to me in the form of a snowstorm that interrupted Katie’s birthday party and forced my oldest brother and his wife to spend the night at our home. Although the idea of being snowed in with family sounded fun, I couldn’t stop thinking about Dan. With his disability, there was no way for him to go to the store if he needed something to eat. One look at Katie's leftover birthday cake and I knew what I had to do.

 “Will you help me take some leftovers to the person I met at the restaurant earlier this week?” I asked Bill.

“Have you looked outside?”

“He lives alone,” I reminded him. “What if Dan doesn’t have any food?”

Knowing that this was a battle he was not going to win, we left Katie and Hollie with my brother and sister-in-law and loaded a box of leftovers into Bill’s vehicle. Although we arrived without incident, my husband was still questioning our sanity as he braved the blowing snow to lift the box of food out of the back of the vehicle.

“Who goes out in a blizzard?” he asked.

“Christians,” I said with a smile.

“Good point,” he agreed.

It was an excellent point, but as much as I wanted to take credit for this spiritually witty comment ... I knew that I couldn't. By definition making a point means that we are acting purposefully or intentionally.[iii] I was doing neither when I said the first thing that came to mind. Knowing that God works through His Spirit to direct our thoughts led me to conclude that the point being made was not mine, but God's.

Sometimes I think we’re too quick to lay claim to verbal territory that’s already been staked out by someone else. In my case, I was merely rephrasing what Jesus said during a conversation with Simon Peter in chapter 21 of the book of John.

“Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?” Jesus asked in verse 15.

“Yes, Lord,” his disciple answered, “you know that I love you.”

Upon hearing these words Jesus said: “Feed my lambs.”

That's what we were doing that night in the snowstorm: taking care of one of His sheep. It would be the first of many opportunities to practice what Jesus preached as I started meeting Dan weekly for lunch and he became, not just a ministry, but part of our extended family. While there have been moments when it hasn't been easy because we think and act very differently, it has always been rewarding.

Tom Davis once said that transformation occurs when we hear the words of Jesus and obey them.[iv] Eight years after meeting Dan at the restaurant, I am still a work in progress. Tom Davis is, too. He wrote about his ongoing transformation on page 27 of Red Letters where he had this to say on the subject: “Most of my life, I have prayed that … I would wake up one day and be a totally different person. That all of my desires would be godly. That I would have a natural inclination to deny myself, pick up my cross, and follow Jesus. ... But it didn’t happen like that.”

“Transformation did occur when I would hear the words of Jesus and obey them, no matter how I felt.” Davis continued. “The more I obeyed, the more I was transformed. I was becoming a different person because I was living myself into it. I was becoming the words I saw on the page. The words Jesus himself spoke.”

Whenever my daughters are in a bad mood, I tell them to work their worries away because nothing improves a person's attitude more than the satisfaction of a job well done. Knowing that we can also work at becoming more like Christ makes me wonder: What would the world be like if everyone practiced what Jesus preached? Would we all begin to look like Him from the inside out?

I don't have all the answers but I do know this: Although good deeds won't get us into heaven, they will lead to our growth and demonstrate that we are Christians. We can’t just pray for a Christ-centered life; we have to practice it as we step outside our comfort zone—and sometimes into a blizzard—to take care of Jesus’ sheep.

Verses To Heed:

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

James 1:22

“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Matthew 25:40b

Quotes To Grow On:

“What if all Christ-followers lived the Red Letter words in the Bible—Jesus' words?”

Tom Davis, Red Letters, p. 27

“The Red Letters life is a hope-giving life. A life-giving life. It begins with just one step. … Before you know it, those steps become a journey. … A journey you will never forget because of the people you meet. And believe it or not, you’ll recognize every one of them. They look like Jesus.”

Tom Davis, Red Letters, p. 167