Dealing With Discouragement

The begining of the outdoor evangelism season is always rough to get started. I suppose that it would be great to have conversations on the street throughout the whole year would be great. But, since I live in Iowa, that’s just not the case. At the begining of the year, Kasin and I went downtown to strike up conversation with people heading into the Fallout Boy concert at Wells Fargo Arena. The only problem is that it was freezing, and we decided to stay in the heated skywalks away from the cold.

After we prayed in the car, we went in and walked towards the arena. With new Olympic Million Dollar Bills from Livingwaters in hand, we opproached people for conversation. With every person we came in contact with, we could not get anything going. It was looking bleak. Every person that we ofered it to rejected it. It was like the tracts had some invisable fungus with roaches crawling all over it only they could see. We couldn’t figure out why.

Things got better

We did manage to speak with three teens coming out of the Y.M.C.A., and it was a good conversation. Then I made the decision to go outside and check out the skatepark. What a difference. We battled the cold, but I was really suprised at the teens and how open to talking they were. They took all the tracts, and listened to us as we shared the gospel, and it wasn’t a completely wasted evening. We also gave away some tracts to the guys parking cars, and prayed for everyone we met. It was a good evening.

If the fish are not biting, we just go to another lake

I’ll be honest though, it didn’t start off that way. But we must remember that if we prayed for the Lord to direct us in our conversations, and to the people He wants us to talk to, maybe we need to go to a different area. Sometimes He uses discouragement to do that. We were not going to give up, but pressed on and changed course a little.

Even though the night wasn’t a bust, and hopefully some of these teens think about our conversation and read the things we gave them. There were some things that we need to take into consideration when we are discouraged.

First, you have to not only go where the fish are, but also where the fish are biting. There are so many times that conversations at an event is not happening I end up leaving discouraged and frustrated. But it’s at those times when I’m trolling along back to the dock where I get my bites which turn into a fish on the end of the line. As I leave the event, that’s when I have my meaningful conversations. Why is that? Well, there are many distractions inside, and people are not focused until they leave. That’s a good time to engage with a million dollar bill tract or something to read when they get home.

Second, there are many things going on in the unseen realm that we don’t know what is going on. The enemy is plotting and scheaming to frustrate your work. God at the same time is working on hearts of individuals around you to see what you have and to give a listen.

Lastly, which should be done firstly, is — pray. Ask the Lord to lead you and guide you to where the fish are biting. Let Him direct you to the places where you are needed the most. It is His work, not ours. Let Him make your paths straight and lead. Pray for strength, clarity, and encouragement. Many times we don’t receive because we do not ask (James 4:2).