If you want to make me suffer, just invite me to a party. Not any
party, mind you! It has to be one of those dinner parties or social
gatherings where you don't know most of the people there; where you
are required to wear a permanent smile on you face, (but your eyes
have a blank look), and where the hottest topic of conversation is
the weather!
It is not that I am a hermit - I love meeting my friends - it is
simply that this kind of scene, so superficial and false, is not for
me.
Once in a while it might be fun, but when you have been doing it for
more than thirty years, even the novelty of meeting important people
from all walks of life wears off. At the end of the evening you are
left with a sense of emptiness and the feeling that you could have
put your time to better use.
Because of my husband's job we are invited out quite often and no
matter how much we try to decline many invitations, still, our diary
is very busy. I must admit that I have even prayed (begged is more
the right word) to God to stop all this, to let us fall out of favour
with the people who invite us, to give us some respite, but actually
the more I pray the more invitations we seem to get.
One day I was thinking about this strange coincidence and suddenly
the thought struck me that, maybe, it wasn't a coincidence at all
but that God was either putting me in those situations to teach me
something or He wanted to use me.
I decided there and then that I needed to change my attitude and
that instead of complaining I would have tried to use these dinner
parties to talk about God and to evangelise.With this thought in mind
I felt more prepared to cope with the incoming week and the four dinner
parties waiting for us. Before each dinner I spent some time in prayer
(something that I had never done before) asking God to give me the
opportunity to speak about Him. The result was beyond my wildest dreams.
As soon as the opportunities presented themselves I prayed mentally
for courage and launched myself in evangelisation mode! The more I
talked the more they asked and I could sense a spiritual hunger that
left me humbled. I had obviously misjudged all these people, thinking
them empty and vacuous! Instead they were people desperate to know
God, desperate to have some faith. They wanted to be told that life
doesn't end here, that there is more to life than making money and
partying. They needed to be told that God loves them and that they
only had to ask to receive His love and much much more.They were surprised
at the bounty that was opening up in front of them, I was surprised
at their desire for God and the supernatural. It was a week that really
changed my outlook on parties and people.
I have kept in touch with some of them and things are slowly moving
in the right direction. Four of them have even accepted an invitation
to go to a Day of Renewal! The interest is there and they are open,
I am sure that God will do the rest.
It has taken me more than thirty years to realise that God can use
even the most frivolous occasions for something good and that nothing
is wasted if we call Him to be in charge of a situation. Thirty years
is a long time, I know, but as the saying goes…..better late
than never.
