Illustration by Ted Pitts

"I've always been a spiritual person," Bob offered.

Lord, help me! I cried silently as we began to talk. This was the opportunity I had prayed for.

The Red Sox-Rangers game provided a steady hum in the background as my upstairs neighbor began to share his life with me. That Friday night we talked for three hours about the condition of the world, broken relationships, and the gospel. Although Bob did not accept Christ as his Savior that night, I'm convinced that someday soon he will.

My talk with Bob and our budding friendship was the culmination of a long journey for me—one that had started three years earlier when I left a secular job as a high school English teacher to work as an editor for a Christian publishing house. My new job forced me to leave friends and family and move to a new state.

After about three months, I started to get a sense of restlessness. I was involved in new things; I was making new friends and had plenty of opportunities to occupy my time. Still, there was something within me that made me feel strange.

At the same time, the first book I worked on in my new job—One to One by Terry Wardle—began to have an impact on me. It was about friendship evangelism, with a particular emphasis on relationships that develop to a place where Christ can be presented. One point in particular stood out:

Evangelism begins not by disengaging from society but by establishing a beachhead of love among the unchurched. Christians must penetrate the world around them, relating, caring, helping, listening, and touching. We must build meaningful friendships with our unchurched neighbors. By focusing on common interests, we can establish bridges of trust. In time the message of salvation will cross from one heart to the other. This is the foundation of effective evangelism: establishing a Christian presence with nonChristian friends and neighbors.

Withdrawal! That's what I was feeling. I was going through a withdrawal of sorts. It had been months since I had shared my faith with anyone. And what's more, I now had no one to share my faith with. For the first time in my life I had no nonChristian friends. And I missed them. Forget about witnessing; I had no one to live Christ in front of!

As a public school teacher, I always had ample opportunity to share the gospel and portray Christ in front of my students, the girls on my basketball and softball teams, and my fellow teachers. Using Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, or showing The Mission in my senior classes raised many questions about spiritual things. I got a number of my students to go to the youth group at my church—and several eventually accepted Christ as their Savior. Aside from a few close friends at church, all the people I hung out with were unsaved. Talk about a mission field! It was an exciting time.

Now I was working for a Christian organization, involved at church, and active in a Christian singles' ministry in the area. Plenty to do, plenty of new friends, but no nonChristians among them. I simply didn't walk in those circles anymore.

To top it off, Scripture began to convict me. "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone" (Col. 4:5–6). Right, Lord, I thought. Who do I have to "be wise in the way that I act toward"? Then it hit me. Why not pray for opportunities?

And pray I did: "Lord, lead me to some nonChristians." And lead me, He did.

Interacting with the People Around Us

My first step led me to a part-time job at a local department store, where I began selling sporting goods. I became friends with Stan, my department manager; Sean, the store's assistant manager; and Sue and Jeff, two coworkers.

I found that working as an editor of religious books allowed me some great opportunities—especially with Sue and Jeff. Sue was having difficulty with kids in a blended family situation; I was able to get her some good Christian books to help. Jeff taught Sunday school in a very liberal church. When he became disgruntled with the poor material he had, I introduced him to some solid, exciting, biblically based curriculum.

With Stan it was sales ethics that gave me opportunities. The Lord enabled me to become one of the top salespersons in total dollars—but I refused to push service agreements (a real profit-maker for the chain). I questioned the need for a service agreement on many products and would just mention it to customers without urging them to buy one. Stan didn't like that. But since I sold so much, I had some leverage to express my views.

Sean's singleness gave me an in with him. He noticed that I didn't try to pick up women like he did. His curiosity allowed me to talk casually about my relationship with Christ and how it affected my respect for women.

During the day, at my "Christian" job, I found myself anxious to get to my "secular" job. I looked forward to seeing my colleagues and prayed for more opportunities to talk with them about Christian values. By spring circumstances forced me to resign my sales position. But by then, I had renewed my desire to look for opportunities wherever possible.

Still, I felt some frustration that I wasn't able to see anyone make a commitment.

Responding to People's Needs

My next opportunity came when my church offered Evangelism Explosion training. Since everyone in my immediate family had taken the training and was ecstatic about the results, I decided to sign up. During that time I saw the Lord use my team to lead a lonely widow, the unsaved husband of a long-time Christian, and a teenager to a saving knowledge of Him.

Along the way on my journey I was learning other lessons about what it means to make use of every opportunity. Jesus said,

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Making use of every opportunity meant not hiding, but the Lord was also teaching me that I needed to do subtle things to be salt and light. Too often we think that having a lifestyle where we constantly share Christ means using a grab-the-lapels type of evangelism. While I think there are times when the Holy Spirit leads us to be that bold, it is often the simple things we do that produce the most fruit.

My talk that night with Bob did not come out of the blue. It came after we had developed a relationship. You see, my natural inclination is not to reach out to people I don't know. I had to make a conscious effort to reach out to Bob. When I moved into the apartment below him and his live-in girlfriend, Kathy, it would have been easy to write them off because of my moral beliefs. Fortunately, I listened to the Spirit and began to be friendly toward them.

Then one weekend it happened: Bob went away and Kathy's parents came to visit. They moved her out on Saturday. Instantly the Lord spoke to me, You've been through painful broken relationships before. Reach out to him! I tried to rationalize. I hardly know him. I can't just say, "Hey, I've been there. If you need to talk about it, I'm here." But I started to pray. Then my action was to begin putting extra meat on the grill. Several times he arrived home just as I was about to eat, so I invited him to come down and share a meal.

Next, our friendship progressed to watching sports together on TV. That eventually led to the Friday night talk.

By this time I was habitually seeking opportunities to be salt and light.

Seizing Opportunities Both Great and Small

A promotion to department head at work brought a new network of contacts. Now I dealt with outside vendors—design companies, artists, and printer representatives. I began to pray that God would give me relationships with some of them. In the meantime, I worked on being fair with them, on always doing more than just business, showing that I cared about their lives. Sometimes a discussion of the cover design or the printing of a particular book allowed me to explain the book's content. Above all, my desire was simply to portray Christ. It certainly kept me on my toes.

I still look for opportunities to increase my contact with them. Some of them play tennis; I play tennis. Some of them golf; I golf. Maybe we'll do it together sometime.

The point is that we can't just wait for an opportunity to proclaim the plan of salvation to people, we need to become a part of their lives and present a living Christ through our actions and words. Paul tells us that we are "the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing" (2 Cor. 2:15).

Begin praying for the opportunity to be that aroma. Then look for every opportunity to develop relationships with the lost and to portray Christ in front of them. Maybe it will mean joining a health club, a civic organization, or a community theater group or chorus. Maybe it will simply mean helping a new neighbor move in furniture or sweeping off their stoop when you're doing your own.

Every day the Lord puts a myriad of subtle, quiet opportunities to further His Kingdom in front of us. We only need to seize them!

For example, the Lord gave me the idea and the strength to shovel out my neighbor's car—after already having done mine—following a 25-inch March snowstorm. And today, when my neighbor Linda arrived home and saw me cooking on my gas grill, she commented how she and Andy wished they had one. Instantly the Lord caused me to blurt out, "Hey, you guys can use mine anytime; let me show you how to work it." And my other neighbor, Chris—well, I just found out that he works with my tennis partner (who is also a believer).

And what about Bob? He has since moved. But he has promised to take me duck hunting in the fall. I've never hunted, and I hate the thought of sitting in a chilly blind in the middle of a marsh at 6 a.m. But I love Bob; so if that's what it takes to further our relationship, I'll do it gladly..

Jonathan Graf is editorial director of Christian Publications in Camp Hill, PA. He is active in his church as worship team leader and teaches adult Sunday school.

Most people would be surprised to know that Jonathan wants to write a philosophical cookbook-devotional for single men titled, Food for the Single Man: Exotic Recipes Prepared in Less Than 20 Minutes That Can Be Served on TV Trays.

Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad World?

The attractions of the holy huddle are undeniable. After all, "out there" is our enemy the devil "looking for someone to devour." What fears loom largest in your mind when you think about engaging with nonChristians?

Read Jn. 17:6–19 in which Jesus prays for His disciples who are being sent out of the holy huddle and into the world. List below any phrases about God's person and provision that can boost your courage to be "saltier" and "shinier."