When my brother was twelve, doctors diagnosed him with Juvenile diabetes. The year was 1953, and he had access to only two kinds of insulin and an old family doctor. As the only boy with five sisters, we knew he was special.
Our mother made it her mission to keep him healthy. She read everything available about diabetes and made him special foods without sugar, even desserts. On the farm, he got plenty of exercise, but he was very unstable, requiring close supervision to avoid rapid drops in his blood sugar.
When Murray was seventeen, our dad wanted him to take a truckload of pigs to a market about two hours from our farm. Neither of our parents wanted him to be alone that long, so they asked me—a twelve-year-old—to go with him and ensure his sugar levels did not rapidly change.
Mom gave me some candy to use if I thought he needed it, along with instructions to “get help” if he fainted. To this day, I’m not sure what I would have done had a real emergency occurred. I felt as if my parents were entrusting me with their most precious possession. I suppose they were.
The disciples must have felt the same when Jesus told them to go and tell and then left them all alone. Their responsibility was immense, but they didn’t count on the difference the Holy Spirit would make in their lives. Those eleven men turned the world upside down—and without libraries, phones, faxes, computers, or books. The disciples used what they had: their stories. Some preached, some wrote letters, and some went on missionary journeys. God equipped them as they faced persecution and death.
We, too, might feel inadequate when telling others about Jesus. Sometimes, knowing how to tell the gospel is difficult, especially when someone doesn’t want to hear it. Writing the gospel into a novel works more effectively for me. I’ve seen others who find it easy to engage strangers on the street.
Whatever means you have, God will use it to tell His story. All He asks is that you obey.
Linda McClung grew up on a farm in Virginia and spent fifty years as a nurse, both practicing and teaching. She retired to South Carolina to enjoy the lake and became bored with too much time, so she began to write. At first, her stories were short stories for the grandchildren, but as they grew, so did her stories. She has three books published.