Life As A Sermon

She didn’t need [to hear] a sermon—she’d already seen one.

—HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, 148

Todd and Sonja

There’s something else we want to point out about that incident where the nurse told me Colton’s recovery was a miracle and “there has to be a God.” It’s linked to the two messages we share when we’re speaking to audiences around the country. During those appearances, Sonja reminds listeners that everyone has a story, a testimony about what God has done for him or her. Your story may not come in a book with a yellow cover and a cute little boy on the front, but that doesn’t mean it’s not as real as our story is. We all have stories of what God has done in our lives, and by sharing that story we can inspire and encourage others who may be stuck in a crisis or heartbreaking part of their story.

Combine that truth with what Todd tells audiences: he says that too often in the church we have a messed-up perception that pastors and missionaries are the only ones with a calling to share the gospel.

Yes, God’s call to pastors and missionaries is unique, but whether you’re a plumber or electrician, hotel maid or restaurant dishwasher, schoolteacher or stay-at-home parent, building janitor or corporate executive, you have a calling too. There is not one person who doesn’t have a calling to impact others with God’s message of love, grace, and the promise of heaven.

Maybe your calling is to influence and encourage coworkers. Maybe it’s an after-work calling, like Sonja’s, to the children in your church. Maybe it’s to the folks living in nursing homes or assisted living facilities. Or maybe you’re homebound and your calling is to pray for those in need. Discover your own calling through prayer and by considering what you enjoy doing and who you enjoy being with. Then watch for God to open up opportunities for you.

I (Todd) have shared my story of how I felt God calling me to be a pastor—and I enjoy preaching. But for most folks, having a calling has nothing to do with preaching. And even God’s call to preachers isn’t solely about preaching. Instead, a calling means God asks us to live so that we touch others’ lives for him.

That’s how the most powerful sermons are shared. The nurse in the hospital who told me, “There has to be a God because this is a miracle” probably wouldn’t have had the same reaction if I had simply met her out on the street somewhere and told her what happened—that friends back home were joining us in praying for Colton and that what happened next was nothing short of miraculous. Instead, she saw that “sermon” quietly played out, and as a result, she became convinced that God is real.

The nurse saw us praying, and she saw our church friends coming in and out of the hospital. I’ve been told that in that hospital they can tell when a patient comes in from our congregation because they see the same praying, supportive people there visiting and encouraging the patient and his or her family.

In fact, our church custodian had surgery there, and recently she told me later that when the doctor came in to check on her that night, maybe after seeing familiar church family and friends there earlier, he smiled and said, “You go to Todd’s church, don’t you?”

Those people who keep showing up at that hospital to pray for and support each other are making an impact on the hospital staff, who are seeing a sermon lived out.

Sonja

Miracles are great. And so is living your life as a sermon. But we don’t want you to think you can never make a mistake or that you have to have a college degree or be a Bible scholar to make your life, or your story, a testimony. Look at Colton. Here’s a kid who tells his story very simply. He doesn’t elaborate. He doesn’t go into deep explanations. He just says, matter-of-factly, this is what happened. (If the old police show Dragnet were still on the air, he could definitely be a stand-in for that detective who would say, “Just the facts, ma’am.”)

Colton’s story, which he tells with unadorned, childlike innocence, has convinced thousands of people that heaven is for real. It shows that people don’t need to see a miracle. They can just hear the unshakable faith of a child and know he’s telling the truth. And that’s enough.

There are many ways to reach someone for God. What many adults need to realize is that God doesn’t need us to argue for him. He doesn’t expect us to have all the answers. He just wants us to share our story, in the simplest terms possible, and to tell people what he has done for us, and then show them by how we live that he’s at work in our lives. He’ll take care of the rest.

Todd

I was on a cross-country flight recently and the woman I sat next to spotted the yellow Heaven Is for Real bracelet I wear. She looked at me, recognized my face from pictures she’d seen, and said, “You wrote the book, didn’t you?”

I smiled and said, “Did you like it?”

She said, “Well, I just came back from Palestine. I have extended family there. I used that book with my family. It was the first time I can remember that we sat down and talked about God without getting into a fight.”

Who knows how—or whom—your story, or your life, will impact? You might be leading someone to heaven. There’s always room there for more!

Watch for openings when someone might be receptive to believing merely by hearing your simply told story of how God has recently touched your own life.

I, too, give witness to the greatness of God, our Lord, high above all other gods. He does just as he pleases—however, wherever, whenever.

—Psalm 135:5–6 MSG