Open Your Eyes to Harvest in Unexpected Places - My Recent Experience

One out of five non-Christians in North America doesn't know any Christians.  A just completed study found that 20% of non-believers in North America really do not "personally know" any Christ-followers.  That's 13,447,000 people—about the population of metropolitan Los Angeles or Istanbul. (Christianity Today, Abby Stocker, 08.19.13)

One of the reasons for this reality is that disciples of Jesus don't always believe the words of Jesus to His disciples in John 4:35 "I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields!  They are ripe for harvest."  The context for these words of Jesus was the woman at the well of Sychar in Samaria.  The disciples had gone into town to buy bread while Jesus gently led this Samaritan woman to faith. Verse 27 tells us that "his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman."  They start a conversation about physical bread and he says "Don't you have a saying, 'It's still four months until harvest'? I tell you open your eyes and look at the fields!  they are ripe for harvest."

While Jesus sat at the well, tired from traveling, whom did the disciples pass on the road to the Samaritan village to buy bread?  In all likelihood they passed the woman coming to the well.  They missed her while Jesus found her.  They saw the same person as Jesus but they assumed there was no possibility of a Spiritual harvest with a woman from a Samaritan town.  Jesus tells them to open their eyes.  Don't say that the harvest is four months away...it is all around you right now.

Too often, I have assumed the people I meet in everyday life are not "harvestable" by the Holy Spirit, passing them by, believing that they couldn't possibly be interested. That is probably why so many non-believers don't even know one believer!  I am thankful that I get occasional wake-up calls from the Holy Spirit that challenge my assumptions.

Just two weeks ago, a doctor whom I have been visiting for three years told me "I have something exciting to tell you.''  He said it with a big smile.  For background, this man is brilliant and educated.  He has an MD a PhD and an MBA.  He comes from a non-Christian background and an ethnic group different from mine.  We have had ongoing conversations about Jesus, church, Christians, etc. for 3 years.  I would not have thought he would be interested in a conversation about Jesus, but each visit over the last three years turned to Spiritual matters.  Each visit found me thinking "Oh, if I had only said this...or only said that."  I guessed I had made no difference.  Now for his announcement!  "I have something exciting to tell you...in April the Holy Spirit spoke to me and told me that everything I had been hearing about Jesus was true."  He told me he knew some might think him crazy, but he had no doubt at all who was speaking to him.  He has since been baptized and gone through instruction in the Christian faith.

He even told me that I was one of only two people he had ever discussed faith matters with and thanked me.  I cried when I got into my car, overwhelmed that Jesus could use me in even a small way to walk with him on the path to faith in Jesus.

So, for me, the phrase "Open your eyes and look at the fields!  They are ripe for harvests." has new and richer meaning.  I am asking God to open my eyes and help me to make no assumptions that neighbors, ethnically different, generationally different or socio-economically different people are uninterested in Jesus.  I am praying that everyone I meet will hear and experience Jesus from their interactions with me.  I don't want anyone around me being able to say "I don't even know a Christian."  It is a big prayer but we have a big Savior who wants all to be included in His harvest.