I was stepping through the slush of the parking lot as I watched him walking toward me. He was a young, skinny guy, wearing a plaid hoodie that covered his head. He had earbuds, and so he didn't hear me at first when I spoke to him. Then he pulled them out.
"Can I pray for you?" I asked. He hesitated, and then, "No. I'm of a different religion," he said. I was a bit surprised by that, most of the time expecting to find people around here with no religion rather than a different one altogether. So I asked him what his religion was. He told me the name, but I'd never heard of it and can't remember it even now. But I remember how he responded to my question about what it was all about. "It's a racist religion," he explained. "Racist?" I asked. He persisted: "Yeah. Well, it's more of a separatist religion. We don't believe the races should intermix."
This clearly was uncharted territory for me. And a bunch of garbage, for sure. But I wasn't there to argue. So I said the best thing I knew to say. "I just want you to know something," I said. "Jesus died for your sins. ... And he loves you very much." My separatist friend just looked at me. He apparently wasn't one to argue either. He just kind of nodded and walked off. I watched him go.
When I got to my car, I wondered if I'd handled it right. Was I too stern with him? Should I have brought up the whole sin issue? But in my heart, I felt the words were the right ones. I'd proclaimed Christ, and now it was up to that young man what he did with that information. And when the radio came on in my car, it was playing Jeremy Camp's song, "Jesus Saves." That's kind of been my anthem for this project because it's such an awesome message. I just pray that message will make a difference in the life of the guy in the plaid hoodie.
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