Kevin Harney saw a woman come up to another woman and say, “Smell my hair.”
The second woman leaned over and took a big whiff. What followed was a lengthy conversation between two friends about a particular hair-care product. The first woman extolled the virtues of her new shampoo while her friend listened and asked probing questions about it.
“We evangelize all the time,” Harney said in his book, Organic Outreach for Ordinary People. “When we try a new restaurant that has amazing food, we want others to experience it. We’ll even take them out and pay the bill so they can enjoy our discovery. Many people are so enthusiastic about a sports team that they wear clothes that bear the team’s name and logo. The truth is, when we are zealous about something, when we really love it, we talk about it. We invite others to experience it.”
“Are you luminous? ”
But then Harney brought his point home: “Why is it that we can be more enthusiastic about a new restaurant than we are about Jesus? How is it that we can talk naturally about a hair-care product or a sports team, but when it comes to the most important thing in our lives--our faith--we clam up?”
In John 4, a woman’s life was changed by an encounter with Jesus. But the story doesn’t end simply with one changed life. No, it ends with a changed life changing lives! She went public with her faith, and her village was brought to Jesus.
John doesn’t preserve her name, but later Catholic tradition called her Saint Photina. The name is likely speculative, but it reflects her actions. The word means, “Luminous One.”
Are you luminous? Are you public with your faith? John 4:27-42 can help us here. Last week we looked at the first half of the story (verses 1-26) where a single life was changed. This Sunday we’ll look at how a changed life changed lives. Join me on campus or online at 10am.
--Tom
Sign up here to receive Tom Goodman’s weekly devotional in your email inbox. Tom serves as pastor at Hillcrest Church in Austin, Texas. His sermons are available on YouTube and the HillcrestToGo Podcast and you can find him on Facebook and Twitter.