Several years ago, I met one of my best friends. We were at a gathering for my husband’s employer, and we instantly connected. Everything about her was friendship material except for her faith, which was a big question mark. When we hung out, we could discuss any topic except for religion; she avoided the subject like the plague, and I let her. I really had no idea if she even believed there was a God, and I also didn’t ask.
A year passed by, and we were very close, but If I had a prayer request, I would send it to my other friends who were believers instead of her. If God showed up in my life, I would tell everyone about His glory and instead give her the watered worldly version. I never talked much about church or my calling in ministry because this part of my world was set aside in her presence.
But one Sunday morning changed everything. Our sermon at church was about Peter and his denial of Jesus. Our pastor spoke about how in the presence of certain people, Peter denied his connection to Jesus because of his fear of what they would think or do to him. In one chapter, he went from defending his Savior passionately to denying he even knew Him.
Simon Peter followed Jesus, as did another of the disciples. That other disciple was acquainted with the high priest, so he was allowed to enter the high priest’s courtyard with Jesus. Peter had to stay outside the gate. Then the disciple who knew the high priest spoke to the woman watching at the gate, and she let Peter in. The woman asked Peter, “You’re not one of that man’s disciples, are you?”
“No,” he said, “I am not.”
Because it was cold, the household servants and the guards had made a charcoal fire. They stood around it, warming themselves, and Peter stood with them, warming himself (John 18:15-18).
Meanwhile, as Simon Peter was standing by the fire warming himself, they asked him again, “You’re not one of his disciples, are you?”
He denied it, saying, “No, I am not.”
But one of the household slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Didn’t I see you out there in the olive grove with Jesus?” Again Peter denied it. And immediately a rooster crowed (John 18:25-26).
The Holy Spirit gently convicted my heart that I was living like Peter. I was scared that if I was truly myself and she saw my faith in action, I would no longer be welcome in our friendship. So that morning, I settled in my heart that there were no longer two versions of myself but just one authentic version that was walking out my faith in every situation amongst every person.
The next day, I sent her my first prayer request, and I received a kind message back saying that she loved me and would be thinking of me.
Relief flooded my heart as I knew that I was walking out the Great Commission with this step of obedience. I continued to share prayer requests through the years, and her responses changed from “thinking of you” to “praying for you.” She slowly would share her view of God and occasionally share a verse that she found with me.
After years of inviting her to a women’s event at church, she finally attended in March. During the event, I looked over, and she had tears running down her face during worship; at that moment, Jesus reminded me that when we step out in faith and stand firm in who we are in Him, the Kingdom will grow. And that is the only thing that matters; it’s our calling and mission to carry His goodness and love to the people right outside our front door. They are the nation, and we are the carriers of the Good News.
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