It was March 7, 2019 in the early afternoon. I was in the Orlando International Airport preparing to fly home after having been at the Exponential Conference (a Church growth, planting, and health conference held annually) that I had attended. Inundated with ideas and possibilities, I was looking forward to returning home to family and my local church so that I could pray and seek the leading of the Lord for direction about the future.
My District Superintendent, Dr Tim Crump, had dropped me off at the airport early so that he could arrange the ride for others from our District who had attended. Security was a pat down and an x-ray before I found myself at the correct gate a few hours before departure time. Lunch had been skipped between the end of the conference and travel to the airport so I decided to find something to eat and moseyed over to the Burger King inside the airport terminal.
As I stood in line I struck up conversation with the man in front of me in line. It was an extra long line and we had plenty of time to tackle the standard airport conversational topics: Where are you from? Where are you going? Why are you traveling? What do you do for a living?
I do not usually start conversations with strangers touting my occupation and calling. "Pastor" tends to shape the conversation early on in ways that create barriers to authenticity if not outright alienation at times. But I was asked the question and my response brought input from the man in line behind me.
His name was Jason and as I began to shift conversation to him, it became apparent that he was not completely sober. The smell of alcohol permeated his breath. The conversation took a turn into inquiry of his spiritual condition to which he informed me that He didn't really have faith in God.
"Jesus changed everything for me. I would not go through life without serving Him."
We ordered our food, waited with a few others as our orders were fulfilled, and as I prepared to pick up my tray with food, Jason asked: "Can I sit and talk to you a little more?"
To be honest, I was not really interested in talking as I wanted to look over some notes I had taken and think prayerfully about my local church assignment in Mackey, IN. The conversation had not been real fruitful and conversations with drunks do not tend to be very intellectually stimulating.
"Sure. Come and find me when you get your food."
I sat at a small table in the terminal after finding some napkins to accompany me. Jason arrived soon after I had sat and I asked him if I could pray in thankfulness for the food. He obliged.
Our discussion involved faith in God, being a Christian, and other spiritual queries. Sometimes as I responded to his question or opinion, it seemed that he was almost zoning out of the conversation.
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As we finished up our meal and began to close out our conversation I took out one of my business cards and turned it over to the back which is blank. "I want to recommend two books to you. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer." I wrote the book titles and authors on the back of my card and handed it to him assuming that he would never remember most of the conversation we had or any book recommendations due to his inebriated state.
We parted ways and headed to the gate to catch our flights. I never thought that I would see or talk to Jason again. It is just the nature of airport acquaintances and conversations.
I got home from the Florida trip and on the following Sunday stood and preached a message from John 20:19-22 that included the story of my interaction with a man in the airport in Orlando. "Jesus is sending us to share with the world the Good News? Have you planted any seeds?"
Fast forward time to December 31, 2023. My family and I were visiting my in-laws in Florida for Christmas break. We had attended church with them at Lehigh Acres Church of the Nazarene, came home, ate lunch, and had just cruised the neighborhood on bicycles. My cell phone rang indicating an unsaved Florida number was calling me.
I normally would not answer a call as I was on vacation and the number was unknown to me. Since it was not saved in my contacts, I assumed that it was probably a spam call of some kind.
"Hello?"
"Hi, is this Jared K Henry?"
"Yes sir. Who is this?"
"My name is Jason. We met a few years ago. Do you remember me?"
"I'm sorry Jason, can you be more specific?"
"We were in the airport in line at Burger King and we started talking about God. I was only half sober."
My mind clicked and I immediately remembered Jason. His description including "half sober" was the trigger. "I do remember you."
Jason poured out his testimony to me as I listen in astonishment at the work of God that had unfolded in his life! He had hit his lowest point about a year after I met him in the airport. In those low moments he rediscovered the business card I had given him with the two books written on the back. He purchased the books and read them both. The Holy Spirit spoke through Bonhoeffer's book and Jason made a decision to be a disciple like "The Cost of Discipleship" had spoken of: not via cheap grace, but costly, authentic grace!
He sobered up, worked hard, found a church to attend, joined a men's Bible study, was baptized, and shared his testimony with his church family. God worked in His life powerfully and transformationally!
One day as Jason was relaying his testimony to his pastor, his pastor encouraged him to reach out to the person who had talked with him at the airport if he still had the contact info from the card. It would be encouraging to him. Jason later worked up the nerve to make the call and dialed my number.
I was encouraged. I was blessed. And I was challenged to continue to plant seeds everywhere I go!
Have you planted any seed? Of course not every person I talk to in the airport has called me with a life changing testimony. Not every seed spouts. And not every seed's development is relayed back to me. But I want to plant seeds. I plan on talking to more people like Jason in Heaven, because I plan on continuing to sow seed.
I do not have to get the call back that the seed has borne fruit to continue to plant seed everywhere I go. I am only responsible to cast the seed wherever I go.
Have you planted any seed?
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