Please Give Me Just One Soul

I was throttling down the lonely service road beside the express on my way home from my appointment with my dentist when the LORD impressed upon me to make a sudden right turn into Eternal Gardens memorial park. A smile was on my face as I slowly drove through its gates. I was not sure if the guard would allow me, but I took a chance.

I love cemeteries. I've always thought they're an underrated, and perhaps even ridiculous place to go to outside of the annual Dia de Los Muertos. But for me, it is a place of solace for that certain kind of quiet I enjoy. A place of reality away from the matrix. I drove around until I found an open space with no one in sight, parked in the shade, and walked to a tree in the distance, taking my time.

There was a family in the far distance, the father crouching on the ground, with his wife and little boy. I thought of talking to them, but they're obviously not here to talk to strangers. So I watched them from where I was, till they went back to their car and drove off. 

I spent a good while talking with Father. Happy thoughts. Thankful sentences. Wishful ones. Yearnings. Struggles. The gravestones around me were my audience for the day. I asked them questions about their lives. Whether they had a chance to hear the gospel, or if they ever did, do they now regret ignoring it then? I asked them about their life achievements. Were they rich? Powerful? Happy? They don't look like it from where I sat. 

Before finishing my quiet time, I asked Father for one soul before letting me arrive home. This was a practice I adopted by the apostle of prayer John Hyde. He asked the LORD for one soul a day, and he received what he asked. He then asked consistently every time till he came to ask for eight souls a day, the LORD graciously granting him. So whenever I go out to proclaim Christ, I ask for one soul. Just one soul that God would let me talk to or that He would plant a seed in. I don't have to know. I believe God grants it every time. That great day will reveal the fruit of my prayers.

I stood up, thanked Father for listening to me, and started to walk back to my scooter. Then I saw this lone man resting on his motorcycle across the area where I was. He obviously works here. I didn't have to go looking for a soul. Father had already brought him practically beside me.

"Kuya, may I ask you a few questions?"

"Yes, of course."

"How long have you worked here?"

"Long enough."

"Have you ever stopped to think that while you work in such a place, you'd end up in the same ground as they are someday?"

"Yes. I do. A lot."

This opened an opportunity to direct the conversation to life's often ignored realities. We talked about sin. His sin. The sins of the dead around us. And it being the reason they're lying on the ground right now. We talked about the secrets that God sees. We talked about death. Till we came to the salvation of God through Christ. We talked about the cross. Imputation. Redemption. The new life. Hope. The ultimate joy of knowing God. He welcomed it all, as he listened intently, occasionally staring at the ground pensive. He interacted. Asked questions. Listened more. I was talking with him, man to man. One human being to another.

I thanked him for allowing me his time. I felt his gratitude when he firmly shook my hand and held it longer than usual. He thanked me with sincerity.

I want to thank God for letting this tree grow and provide shade for me. If I hadn't seen this tree, I wouldn't have stayed here and would have missed talking with that man.

On my drive home, I reflected on how I am not doing this for Christ, but because of Christ. I can do things for Him and be motivated by men, and not Christ. Christ is not the object of my faith, but the root of it. I have yet to ask Father something He did not and will not grant. I can only continually ask, in sincere heaviness and eagerness of heart, for the day that Father would finally use me in His service.

The earth has been made unclean by those living in it; because the laws have not been kept by them, the orders have been changed, and the eternal agreement has been broken. For this cause, the earth is given up to the curse, and those in it are judged as sinners: for this cause, those living on the earth are burned up, and few men are left.

Isaiah 24:5-6