ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)–I was 25 feet up in a tree recently having a wonderful, peaceful afternoon. I had a few spare hours and was enjoying my favorite hobby –- bowhunting for whitetail deer. I feel the stress of life melt away every time I find myself in the forest, alone with God and His creation -– no phones, no e-mails, no noise. But not this time.
About an hour after I had climbed the tree, I heard a car driving down the dirt path close to me, honking the horn over and over. Someone was shouting something, but I couldn’t understand what the person was saying. This went on for about 10 minutes. I didn’t know what was going on but since I figured every deer around had been scared away, I decided to climb down and investigate.
As I walked out of the woods and toward my car, I was shocked to see my good friend Harold Reed, the business administrator of New Hope Baptist Church, where I formerly served as pastor, getting out of his car. Then it hit me like a brick that if Harold was out here looking for me in the woods, something was really, really wrong. I had about 100 yards to walk to get to him and that may have been the longest walk of my life. I began to pray that God would prepare my heart because I was afraid that I might be about to hear that someone I love had died.
I finally got to him. I must have been a sight to see. I was wearing a full-length “leafy camo” bug-proof suit that makes you look like a walking tree. Harold told me I needed to take off my bug suit and get to Grady hospital. My 15-year-old son, Trey, who is a fine varsity football player, had been hurt. My heart sank since we had already endured a year-long recovery from a broken leg last year. But that didn’t seem to matter much when Harold told me that Trey had hit his head, lost consciousness, and was being taken by ambulance to the hospital to check for a spinal cord injury.
It was terrifying but it all turned out well. He had a concussion but no neck injury, and most of what the doctors did was just precautionary. I teased my son and told him that when I played football and got knocked out like that, they just gave me an extra cup of Gatorade and sent me back in. But in this day and time everyone is more careful, and for that I am glad.
I am so thankful to God for protecting my son. He is always better to me than I could ever begin to deserve. But I always will remember that walk -– that minute of terrifying uncertainty. That knowledge that something is wrong, but without the full answer. I have thought about this off and on all day long today. Had I received the worst possible news, as many of my brothers and sisters do every day, I would still know, even in my heartbreak that this news is not the end of the story. Bad news does not have the power to change my eternity or to take away my hope. Jesus already bore all of the worst news for me on the cross.
But I also reflected on the fact that most of the people we encounter every day spend their whole lives on a walk much like mine, but without any assurance or hope. They walk a lonely road, toward a death they know must come, but without any knowledge of the One who so wants to walk with them and take them safely home. And worst of all, they walk by many of us every day along that road, and we rarely notice them, and even more rarely stop to love them, serve them and share with them the Hope that is in us. Think about the last time you took a walk like mine — into fear, sickness or uncertainty. What would you have done without your family of faith who love you? Well, let’s not leave anyone on that road alone. Look around today. I promise that you will see hurting people. Maybe someone you know well. Or someone God has appointed for you to meet. But you really can’t miss them if you will open your eyes. That road is everywhere. So let’s walk beside them for a little while, let Jesus love them through us, and make evangelism good news again.
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John Avant is vice president for evangelization at the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board.
