Little Reminders

The man standing across from me on the subway was really intent on what he was reading, making me look a little closer. One Second After You.... was its title, and it looked like a little pamphlet. I did a double-take. It was a tract, and he was reading every word of it. He even flipped back to re-read a page and then closed the booklet and closed his eyes, his head in his hand. Lord, I prayed, meet him as he seeks you. Three men down from him, another man was reading the same tract. The man next to him was reading a book entitled Prayers. The guy with the tract nudged the man with the prayer book and asked him about it.

A young man started walking down the center aisle of the subway car. "Ladies and Gentlemen," he began. Here we go.... I wonder what he's selling. But he continued. "I'm not selling anything." Ah, then he's a performer. "I'm not even going to sing a song for you." Wrong again. "I go by the name of Sacrifice, and I am here in the name and the service of the Lord Jesus Christ...."

I looked around to gauge the reaction of my fellow passengers. The men sitting across from me were still reading their books, but they both had little grins on their faces. I looked in the other direction and saw a woman reading the same tract. I saw a man intent on his reading and thought Wow, I wish I'd gotten myself a copy of this tract. Everyone seems to be liking it! But on closer examination, he wasn't reading the tract after all. He was reading his Bible.

What is going on in here?

It's really easy for me to feel alone in the big city sometimes. Maybe it's because I'm still not really plugged in to a church. Maybe it's because I don't feel like I have solid Christian community yet. Maybe it's because almost all the people I've gotten to be friends with since moving here want nothing to do with Christianity (yet). Really, I know it's a combination of all of these-- but the end result is that though my awareness of the spiritual battles going on around me has increased, I have also felt increasingly hopeless about those struggles.

I'm embarrassed to admit that, but it's true-- I have been losing my confidence in God's power to triumph over Satan.

Tonight was a rebuke to my weak faith. I sit with Christians on the subway. I walk past Christians on the street. And there are people who don't even know it yet, but soon they're going to be Christians too. Because God is that powerful. I sure am glad he does more than I can ask or imagine, because I've gotten pretty unimaginative lately.