The Way to God- by John Goering
This year’s GCE Missionary Retreat in Malta was a wonderful time of encouragement and rest for all of us. As we drove away from an amazing week to the airport, we began a conversation with our friendly and talkative taxi driver, Mateus.
I noticed
a crucifix hanging from his rear-view mirror, so I asked if he was
Catholic. He replied that he is and that
after looking into the historical facts, he had become convinced the stories
about Jesus had actually happened. However, he said in his mind religions were
like sports teams – in reality, all religions were about the same thing: how to
become a better person.
I told
him I was a Christian as well, but that in my mind, Jesus’ main message was not
that he had come to tell us how to be a better person, but to be the way to
God for us. Mateus’ eyes lit up as I shared this. I asked him if he had
read the history around Martin Luther.
He had not, so I shared about a book I had been reading. Luther had been
a Catholic who had always wrestled with the thought: “When have I done enough
for God?” Luther struggled with this until he discovered that the Bible taught
that was the wrong question to be asking.
The better question was “Has God done enough for me through Jesus?”
That’s a question we can answer with YES.
Mateus
became very excited and pulled out a pad of paper and a pen and asked me to
write the title of the book I had been reading. I wrote down the title of the
book and added my contact information, hoping to stay connected with Mateus.
After we boarded the plane,
my son was dismayed to discover he had forgotten his iPod in the taxi. One
minute later, Mateus texted to say he had found the iPod and would mail it to
me for free.