Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

Written by Mike Verkaik 

A few weeks ago, on a Saturday, I ran into a couple of my former students from Holland Christian while having lunch at Chick-Fil-A with two friends, Grant and Albert. As they came up to us they said to Grant, “Hey, I heard you went sledding. Josh told us that you were going with Mike, but the only Mike he could think of was Mr. Verkaik, but he thought that couldn’t be the case.” Surprise, surprise, it was! This sixty-four year old can still get up and down the hill and take a few bumps with my padded snow pants on.

For the past eight years I have had the privilege of building relationships, through events like sledding, with people both at the Wooden Shoe motel and traveling to South Africa for two weeks. This past summer the two separate ministries collided as Albert, a former resident at the motel, traveled with the Holland Christian summer team to South Africa. In South Africa is where Grant, Albert and Levi (not able to make it sledding) met and maintain a friendship since returning. Hence, I received the text strand that started that week with the statement, “Hey, let’s go sledding this Saturday!”

For some reason in our relationship, Grant and Albert don’t see my age, or think sledding might not be wise for me. Dawn on the other hand had a much more cautious viewpoint as I left the house with the words, “Mike, be careful and don’t do anything crazy” ringing in my ears. By the way those words of wisdom were adhered to as I chose carefully the places I where I would sled.

So, why would I go sledding? Well, I do enjoy being active and God created me with an adventurous, fun-loving spirit, for sure, but primarily it is because I have a deep desire to develop a Christian mentoring/discipleship relationship with people.

What God has taught me through my time of teaching, classroom management, and the last eight years of ministry is this; organic Christian mentorship can flow and grow naturally out of existing friendships and life-on-life relationships. It is through the natural rhythms of life, such as sledding, running errands, sharing meals, having a milkshake, or for that matter doing business where the Holy Spirit provides an opportunity for vulnerability and conversations to organically reveal our dependence, love and trust in our heavenly Father.

I have learned that as friendships are developed, people can be quite open and receptive to faith conversations when they occur in the context of those genuine relationships. Actually, many of those discussions begin with their questions for me, so, I continue to remind myself that I do not have to force the conversations, or will them to happen. Actually, our greatest need is prayer. With prayer as a key opening both of our hearts and minds, we have everything we need through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us to be ready to speak His truth when the time comes.

Pauls words to the Colossians continue to speak this truth to us today:

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. …
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.                                                                                                     Col. 4 : (2 and 6)

This morning my Bible reading was 1 John 1-4. As I read the introduction I was reminded again how God’s desire is for us to have intentional love relationships with others. Here are the words paraphrased from John’s letter: “God is love! Everyone needs assurance from God that they are loved and cherished. And when we receive His love, we are free to share it with others. As we love one another, we have the assurance that are are God’s true spiritual children.” (TPT)

Oh, the places we could go as God melds our personality, passions, and physical abilities together to bring us into His glorious Kingdom of people longing to experience His love through us. It is probably not sledding or South Africa for you, so what is it? Who is it? Remember, Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as a guide, so will we trust Him and let Him guide.