“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:9 NIV)

In this short series, I have been telling stories of my dad, my hero.

As I think back on these stories, I realize something that I never saw when I was young: My dad’s crazy behaviour often hurt other people! Nonetheless, he was my hero and I loved him.

My dad loved to go for walks, and when he saw someone he knew on the street, he would stop and talk. His greatest pleasure was to share the latest news. Now please understand: My dad had a very flamboyant personality. He didn’t just talk with his mouth — he talked with his hands, his arms, his facial expressions and his emotions. Everyone on the street would notice his conversations.

My dad also didn’t seem to have a sense of personal space, for he would come up very close to the person he was talking to. Seeing this, along with his animation, passersby might have thought that he was angry at the person he was speaking to!

My aunt, who was my mother’s sister, was named Geo. One day, as she was out walking on the main dike in my home town of Ostend, Belgium, she ran into her brother-in-law, my dad. He was so excited to have found someone to talk to, and he soon had her cornered. Now Geo was too polite to move away; nonetheless, as my dad’s voice became louder and as his flailing arms began to work faster, Geo could feel a familiar heat moving up the back of her neck and onto her face! She looked around quickly to see if anyone was noticing. That was a major mistake, because as usual, my dad had attracted the attention of several others on the Dike. All she could do was hope that no one would recognize her!

Why did my dad do this?

Because the thought never occurred to him that someone might not want to talk to him! He just assumed that everyone would enjoy these interactions as much as he did!

As I think back on this, two thoughts come to mind:

First of all, I realize that there is a time and a place for every conversation. We shouldn’t worry about what other people think; but when we are targeting a particular person in a conversation, and our hope is to convince said person that they need Christ, perhaps it would be good to take a step back and try to read their body language. Are we coming on too strong? Too loud? The wrong time?

But wait. I actually think I’m pretty good at reading people’s negative reactions. Maybe even too good at sensing whether or not they are interested in hearing about Jesus. And if I sense a negative reaction, I tend to back down really fast! And this brings me to my second point: I want to be more outgoing, like my dad was! I want to not care at all what people think of me! What a different life I might have lived if it hadn’t been for my shyness! It would be so much easier to witness if I had even a portion my dad’s outgoing personality!

But perhaps there is a third point here, and this is the important one: An outgoing personality is a bonus; but we also need to ensure we are not coming on to strong, too loud, at the wrong time, etc. What we need is to be keenly in touch with God’s Spirit to guide us so that our witnessing interactions will have the highest potential for bearing fruit!

So what is the lesson we can learn from my crazy hero?

We need to be bold and brazen with our witness. We need to approach people without fear of what they will think, without even a hint of shyness — Just like my dad approached people on the dike. But we also need to be sensitive to the needs of those we are approaching. We need to pray and ask God to guide us to those who will be touched by God’s Spirit, and we need to follow HIS lead!

In His love,
Rob Chaffart
Director, Answer2prayer Ministries

(To access the entire “My Crazy Hero” devotional series, please click here.)