Defend Your Faith

On January 4, 2005, my mother passed away in her sleep. Within two days of receiving the unexpected phone call, Lozanne and I were on a flight to Victoria, British Columbia. My mother had been a very healthy and active eighty-four year old who was also the primary caregiver to my father. Her death was indeed a shock. Somewhere over the dark, cold and frozen prairies, the pilot announced that the Victoria airport and indeed the Vancouver airport had been closed due to snow on the runways and poor visibility. We had been diverted to Calgary where we were forced to find a very bad hotel room, get a few hours of sleep and return to the airport at 5:30 A.M. in order to be informed that we could fly in three hours time to Vancouver. Victoria airport was still closed.

While we waited in the departure lounge, I took the opportunity to prepare for my mother’s funeral. She had asked that I conduct her funeral when the need would inevitably arise. To say that I was unprepared for this huge responsibility was an understatement. I spread my Bible open and began to take some notes from John 11. I had decided that I would give a message of hope found in the words of Jesus when he said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” While I was very deep in thought, a clean cut middle aged man approached me and asked if I would keep an eye on his laptop computer while he went to the washroom. I said yes and then realized from years of experience with laptops that he had asked me, a virtual stranger, to watch a very high end and expensive piece of hardware, not to mention the information contained on the hard drive. I wonder to this day if it was the very visible Bible that evoked what I perceived to be such unwarranted trust. Lozanne and I struck up a conversation with this man when he returned to the lounge. He was a high ranking officer in the Canadian Forces who worked in the field of information technology.

When we arrived in Vancouver, the airport in Victoria was still closed. It would be necessary to find transportation to the ferry and cross over to the island as walk-on passengers. A group of six of us agreed to share the cost of a limousine. The air force officer was one of the group. When we finally made it to the ferry, he sat down to make the journey with Lozanne and myself. As she so often does, Lozanne seized the opportunity to witness her faith to this man. Unlike so many others, he seemed to welcome the attempt and indeed was at least willing to discuss and debate with her. Given his willingness to listen and discuss, most of the 90 minute journey was spent in witnessing. Peter tells us that, as Christians, we should be ready to do just what she did, defend her faith. We read in 1 Peter 3:15 the following words.

15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

We are asked to set apart Christ as holy and we are to accept Him as our Lord and Saviour. If anyone asks you to account for the light that shines as hope within you, you should be ready to do just that. You should do it courteously and respectfully. You should not be forcing your faith on those who do not want to hear about it, but ready to speak of Christ to anyone who is willing to listen. I often wonder about the effects of her faithful words spoken to a stranger on a cold and rough January ferry ride to my mother’s funeral.

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)