Praise Him for converted hearts and souls made new! Today I met up with a sophomore girl to help her begin fundraising for SEEK 2013, our FOCUS National Conference. I first met Lindsey last year at one of our women's nights here at our apartment -- a just-for-fun fellowship event with crafts, snacks, and anything else that would appeal to our girly interests. Lindsey was truly struggling through her first year of college and in need of real friends. I offered a listening ear for a short time that evening but quickly forgot all about it. Months later, after a choir concert, she tapped me on the shoulder and asked if we could get together sometime -- she had a few questions to ask me. Well, I was quite embarrassed because I couldn't even remember who she was! But like every skilled missionary, I played it off throughout our short conversation, afterwards hissing at my teammate, "Who WAS that girl??"
I invited Lindsey to lunch at my apartment and she spilled out her story -- growing up in a Catholic home, rebelling against the Faith because she felt "forced" into it, ultimately rediscovering God at a retreat which she attended begrudgingly at the insistence of her loving little brother. Now she desired only to grow and learn more about Catholicism and this God she had so long denied.
Fast forward to this fall semester: a senior girl I disciple invited Lindsey to be a FOCUS student missionary, and so for the past month or so they have been meeting weekly in discipleship to discuss prayer, evangelization, and the challenges of living as a dynamic Catholic on a college campus. Today Lindsey admitted to me that she's never been as happy as she is now; touching her hand to her heart, she explained that this is a lasting happiness, not just a fleeting feeling. Beginning a daily prayer life has been somewhat difficult, but she bashfully explained to me that in a recent prayer period, after silencing her mind, she unexpectedly heard a voice telling her to love and not to condemn others. She seemed almost shocked at this: was it God speaking to her, or merely her own voice in her head? I assured her that the Lord does indeed speak with a still small voice, even a whisper. She was surprised that she could have such an experience so early in her spiritual development, after only praying for a short while. But I know better -- God works quickly when He is presented with a willing and humble heart.
Lindsey was also proud to tell me about her experience of barehanding "unintentionally." She had a 45-minute conversation that began simply with her telling a fellow student about her father's large family...which led to the big family=Catholic connection...which, after finding out that he used to be Catholic as well, led her to ask him why he was no longer practicing the Faith. So often we are turned off by the concept of evangelization, blaming either our own timidity, ignorance of theology, or distaste for the prospect of forcing our beliefs on others. But true evangelization is nothing more than a conversation which, when spoken in truth and love, inevitably leads back to our God and our hope in Him.
You could say that Lindsey has no particular talent or charisma that would mark her as a student or a teacher of the Faith, and yet she is just one more proof that this duty to evangelize falls on the shoulders of each one of us, whether or not we consider missions our "day job." But first we must sit with Jesus in the classroom of silence, allowing Him to work in our own hearts and shape us into something new. We must pray for many, many more to hear and answer the call to holiness and to live the life for which we were created.
Come, Lord Jesus, send us Your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth!
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