Be Ready

It was a very hot summer’s day as Karl was travelling along the highway on his way home from a business trip. The drive would take him all day and he had no air conditioning in hrs car. This stretch of the highway also had very little vegetation and the scenery was rather monotonous to look at. The 40C temperature had heat waves rippling up from the burning asphalt. The windows were rolled down and a fevered wind was pouring in as he was making good time on his trip home. He was travelling quickly to try to cool off with a breeze blowing through his car, although the hot wind did little to keep the sweat from falling.

Karl kept thinking of the air-conditioned house that was waiting for him at his journey’s end. The valley heat was most unbearable.

There were so many large billboards at the side of the road that provided a little bit of a break from the monotony of the road. He tried counting telephone poles for awhile, and listening to some quiet music on his tape recorder to pass the time as he rolled down the highway. He was suffering from heat and boredom.

A few kilometres before entering the next small town he noticed that his gas gauge registered nearly empty. He would have to stop here for some gas if he expected to continue his journey.

In a few minutes he was within the city limits and spotted a gas station and drove up to the gas pump. Immediately a young man, about 32 years of age, appeared, wiping his hands with a grease rag. “Shall I fill ‘er up for you?” he asked.
“Yes, with regular unleaded please,” Karl responded, getting out of the car to stretch.
The young man loosened the cap, stuck in the nozzle and began filling the tank.
“There’s quite a few bugs on your glass,” he observed. “Let me clean it for you.”

He put the auto-clip on the gas nozzle so that the fuel still poured in and began to scrub and squeegee the spattered windshield. Abruptly he stopped. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing to a sticker of the three angels of Revelation 14 that Karl had on his back window.

Now, this would have been an ideal opportunity for Karl to begin sharing his faith and his church to this stranger. What better time to unfold the good news about the nearness of the end of time and Christ’s soon return. But the day was unbearably hot, and he was in a hurry, so half-heartedly he answered, “Oh, that has something to do with my church.”
“Oh, yeah?” The man smiled as he continued washing the window. “What church is that?”

Somehow Karl knew that he would ask that, and he didn’t feel like discussing religion today. He felt about as contrary as Jonah did when he was seated on the hill overlooking Nineveh in the stifling heat, waiting for the city to ignite. He was in no mood for conversation. He was hot and tired. And he just wanted to get on with it. But he had to answer, if for no other reason than to be civil. So he said, “Oh, you probably never heard of it. It’s a small church.”

“Try me,” he shot back.
“Well,” Karl replied, half timid, half perturbed, “I’m a Seventh-day Adventist.”
“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of them. There’s a large church in town on the main road.”
Karl nodded and even managed a slight smile “How long have you been a Christian?” the young man asked, wanting to continue talking on the subject.
“Since 1979,” Karl answered. “Over twenty years.”

“Wow, you’re lucky! My name is Mat Ellis.” He stuck out his hand and Karl shook it. “My name’s Karl.”
“Nice to meet you, Karl,” he grinned. “I’m the owner of this gas station. And I’m a brand-new Christian.
Open your hood and I’ll check your oil.” He walked stop on in around to the front, lifted the hood and inspected the dipstick. “How’s it look?” Inquired Karl.

!”0il’s fine.” He shut the hood. “But, like I was saying, I’m a brand-new Christian.” His eyes sparkled. “Do you have a minute?”
“Sure why not?”
“Well, my life was a mess. I’m talking total disaster. My wife, Cheryl and I were about to divorce. I was into cocaine and booze. My two kids, Bruce and Carol, were out of control. I tell you, it was bad news.”
Karl listened.

“Then I met Jesus. Some guy, I don’t even know his name, stopped in the station and gave me this little pamphlet on the four spiritual laws.” He pulled out a dog-eared leaflet from his back pocket and showed it to Karl. “This guy even taught me how to pray, right ‘Over there by the grease rack. I invited Jesus to come •into my life that day last April. And what a trip! I haven’t been the same since! Cheryl and the kids and I went to the Baptist church the very next Sunday. The minister made a call that day and I went forward and was baptized. I could go on and on about all the great things that have happened since then. No more coke or booze. God saved my marriage. And my business, since starting to pay tithe, has never been better! Isn’t it great being a Christian?” He beamed.

“Yes,” Karl flatly agreed, trying hard to match Mat’s enthusiasm, “The greatest!”

“I hope you didn’t mind if I talked to you a few minutes, Karl. I just have to tell folks what’s happened. I can’t keep it in. Isn’t that the way it is with you?”

Karl nodded, but in the back of his mind he was thinking of what a poor witness he had been that day.

“Oh, let’s see. That will be $10.70 for the gas.”
“I almost forgot,” Karl mumbled, handing him the “My name’s Karl.”
“Right. Well, it’s been nice talking to you, Karl,” he said. “If you’re passing through town again, please stop on in.”
“I’ll do that, Mat, thanks for the testimony.” Karl replied sheepishly, half thinking of his own neglect.
He smiled, “Yeah, I guess that was a testimony, wasn’t it? I never thought of it that way.”

Karl climbed back into his car, fired the engine and pulled away. In the rear-view mirror he could see Mat smiling and waving. He waved back and set a course for home.

We can see quite a contrast between the enthusiasm Mat expressed about his new found faith, compared to Karl’s, who had been an Adventist for over 20 years. Karl had the blessed knowledge the 3 Angels Messages, the Sabbath and other key doctrines of present truth and he met a Christian man who had an open mind, but had only come part way out of the darkness of this world and was thirsting for more knowledge of truth. Mat had found Jesus as his personal Saviour and then the Lord brought him in contact with Karl, hoping that Karl would share the full light of the truth with him. Karl’s love of the truth had waned over the years. He had become like the believers in Ephesus who had, “left their first love.”

Also Karl was not expecting to share his faith in a gas station. Mat caught him totally by surprise so Karl had little to say about his own faith. He was only thinking of how uncomfortable he was and how soon he wanted to get on his journey and arrive home to his nice comfortable house. Sharing his faith was not a priority at that moment.

We need to have the enthusiasm of Mat since we have been blessed with the light of present truth today or we will become exclusive like the Pharisees were in the day of Jesus and Jesus called them, hypocrites, and whited sepulchres full of dead men’s bones. We need living faith today.

“Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” 1 Peter 3:15.