He Sends Us Where We Are Needed

A poignant encounter I had that reminded me of the desperate need for Christ's love in this world, and how we can show and tell it to people by going where He sends us.

New chapters in books are marked by numbers. New chapters in life are often marked by people.

I have always been a traditional man. By that I mean I have never really been so focused on the miraculous side of Christianity. When someone says that God gave them an image, I’ll think “you made that up.” When someone says the Spirit came over them during worship, I’ll think “that’s what music does to people.” But something happened recently that changed my perspective on our dealings with God’s Spirit.

On the Monday, I got a feeling while praying that I needed to go to Stellenbosch University that Friday afternoon after my final exam. I needed to go and see someone who I’ve never seen.

On the Friday, I got dressed to the nines, wrote the exam, and then got the wheels rolling to go and see a stranger. The whole way there I was thinking, “This is a shameful waste of fuel… you could be on the beach… you’re going to walk around aimlessly and then drive back… what the hell are you doing?” The music was loud.

It took forever to find parking. Campus was buzzing. I had prepared an excuse if I saw someone I knew, and I regrettably used it a few times. “Just here for that biology conference”, I said while hoping none of them took biology.

I strolled around aimlessly in the blazing heat for about forty-five minutes with my jacket wrapped around my waist. I was nervous but also expectant to see what would happen. Nothing happened, and I decided to leave.

But just then, a man with a suitcase and without teeth came up to me and said how he was nervous to approach me, but he knew that he had to. He said he got the feeling he had to be at the university on that Friday afternoon.

He then looked me square in the eye and said, “I killed my father.”

He said his father abused his mother for as long as he can remember. One night in 2001, his dad went at her with a broken wine glass and cut her cheek. He got a knife from the kitchen, and then stabbed him six times in the chest, each time saying, “that is my mother.”

He was promptly convicted and incarcerated in the Stellenbosch prison. Shortly after this his mother committed suicide by ingesting fertilizer.

This man, Angus, was released three days before I met him, on the Monday night - the same day I felt called to Stellies. He was in prison for 21 years and 9 months, which I said is almost my age.

The first thing he did as a free man was go to the family of his father to ask for forgiveness. They tried to have him killed, and it was the neighbours who came to his rescue and had him for the next three nights.

We walked to nowhere and spoke for about an hour. He said that as he arrived in prison, the inmates kicked his teeth out and tried to kill him. He stayed in his own cell for the entire time. He said he hadn’t had good food, a shower, and a proper bed in 22 years. That is all he wanted. I had never seen such earnest desire.

We spoke about forgiveness. We spoke about justice. We spoke about freedom, and how even though many people are not in prison, they are prisoners. They are prisoners with the cell door wide open.

He said that true freedom can only be found in Christ. That’s coming from a man who had just been set free from an actual prison.

We spoke about wine glasses. At the wedding in Cana of Galilee,¹ Jesus saved the best wine for last, and I told Angus that no matter what has happened in his life, his best is yet to come.

I gave him some cash for the night shelter which charged R18 a night. He couldn’t believe that he had met me; someone willing to talk to him about Jesus and support him when he needed these things so dearly. I couldn’t believe that I had met him; an answer to a calling and a brutal reminder about fatherhood, freedom, and gratitude for a bed.

He said he’d write about me when he publishes his book. I said I’d write about him on my blog.

We embraced and then parted ways. He followed me at a distance for a while, and then I looked back and he was gone.

This was two men different in every possible way walking and talking because of their common faith in Christ. He unites us across racial and social barriers, and then we are stronger.

On the drive home I was very emotional. I thought of the contrast between Angus’ life and mine. There were wine glasses and fertilizer in my childhood, but they were used for wine and flowers.

Let this be a new chapter for me marked by Angus. A chapter where I appreciate the needs of this world and know that there is no better thing to listen to in addressing them than the Holy Spirit. He will guide you exactly where you need to be exactly when you need to be there - to set prisoners free by the truth of Christ.

Yes, we must be rational, scientific, and critically thinking Christians, but we must also be Spirit-led, miracle-believing, and faithful Christians who go where we are called, and trust God to do amazing things when we get there.

God speaks to us through His Spirit. We just need to listen.

Woe to me if I had been on the beach.

1. John 2:1-11