Epiphany at the train station

I was standing in a queue at the train station last week, waiting to buy a ticket to the airport. Two men who didn't know me from Adam were seated at one of the tables in the spillover seating from the adjoining café. They had evidently come together and were conversing, though one man was doing most of the talking. In a rather loud and important voice he was hyping (I can't think of a better description) a Christian program of some kind. It seemed to be a counseling enterprise, and the Speaker kept mentioning Ann Arbor, which sounds exotic when you're in Glenside.

The Speaker was psyched about the possibilities for future expansion. He was pitching to the other man about product and "materials." After a few moments it was my turn at the window and I made my purchase and exited the building.

It may seem silly, but that brief experience became a moment of self-recognition for me. As I had stood and eavesdropped, incognito, I was pretending in my mind that I was an unbeliever, listening to Christians. I was pretending I was hell-bound and clueless. I was thinking about these two guys, wrapped up in their program, why don't you talk about Jesus? Why not a word about Him? Why don't you care that I'm standing here and lost? You have one chance to share truth with me, and then I will walk out of your lives forever into the darkness.

Like I said, this could be silliness. It may be I'm becoming fanatical, as some on this blog have suggested. But I thought of all the single opportunity encounters I have blown in my day, all because of a Christian life that had slipped, subtly, to a focus on Jesus accessories rather than Jesus.

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