How many lost people know you?

Jesus. Salvation. Heaven. Love.

2 Peter 3:9 says "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."

That phrase, "not wishing that any should perish" is all over me. My husband and I have been reminded of that phrase painfully over the years. It doesn't say, "not wishing that anyone Emily likes should perish," it says "any." That covers everybody. Even that person who grates on me worse than any in the world.

So the human side of me loses a battle. Again. Again as I try to let Christ grow in me, and fill me up from top to bottom, I have to recognize that He doesn't want anyone to perish. He doesn't want anyone to not be in genuine real fellowship with Him.

Ken told me once that God has lessons for us. Ways that He wants to teach us. If we fail to learn the lesson, He'll just give it to us again. And again. And again. (For me, it gets less fun the more times He has to teach it.)

My lessons are often people. Sometimes, it's people who chap my hide. And guess what? if I fail that lesson, I get another one who chaps my hide even worse.

There was this one. There was a person with which Ken and I shared something precious. Imagine that this something precious was a cup. This cup was the only thing that could hold the Living Water. We shared this cup with someone else. We could have it. So what if we did? What if we took the cup away from a lost person?

We, who live by the Fountain, could take the precious cup from a lost person, leaving them without anything that would offer them Living Water.

We had to put our own wants away, and remember that God doesn't want anyone to perish. That every detail between now and then didn't matter. He doesn't want anyone to perish; to be without Him, and we are to be about showing Him to others.

So now, I will drop the metaphors, and shoot straight. What if you are the only Christian in someone's life? What if you are the only person who reflects Christ to them? How are you showing them Christ's unfailing, ever-present, died-on-the-cross-for-you love?

What if you left, and took the Light with you?