Called to Win

Reaching Every Person: Helping people “to see”

I took my seat on the flight from Toronto to Atlanta. Row 2, seat C. The talkative young man next to me, Tristan, explained that he was traveling to his first meeting with his girlfriend to pursue a relationship begun in a college help session chat room.

Over the course of the flight, we talked about websites, films, and quite a bit about people. As we talked, I could tell that Tristan was a deep thinker, so I asked him if he thought much about spiritual things. I learned that he had never been to church, that both his parents were atheists, and that he recently decided to become agnostic.

Tristan was open and interested as we discussed spiritual things. We talked about the film, The Matrix, and its spiritual parallels: a focus on the one who would come to set things right, the choice people have between a real world and an illusionary world, and that some people know the truth but still choose deception. We talked about sin. We talked about forgiveness. We talked about the need to personally accept Jesus Christ. He was asking very thoughtful questions.

As we sat in the back of a Delta MD-80 at Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport, Tristan asked, “So, if someone wanted to receive Jesus Christ into his life, how would he do it?” Talk about an open door!!!

Tristan and I worked through the Four Spiritual Laws booklet. We talked about God’s love for us, the sinfulness of our own lives, Christ’s death in our place, and our need to personally accept God’s forgiveness found through Jesus Christ.

I read through the prayer and asked Tristan if he too would like to pray. He said, “I did, as you read it.” Sitting in the last seats on an airplane waiting for a storm to clear, Tristan moved from death to life. As we talked further, Tristan shed tears as the reality of his forgiveness set in.

As I reflect back on this story, I stand amazed at God’s sovereignty.

In His sovereignty, God arranged a series of events resulting in Tristan coming into the kingdom. In God’s sovereignty, Delta ticket agents assigned me to seat 2C and assigned Tristan to seat 2D.

A few days after the flight, I found my boarding cards again and realized that God had seated me in 2C in order to help Tristan to see.