It’s 11:00 o’clock in the morning, and I’m driving down Rural Road to a parking structure on Terrace Road in Tempe, Arizona. I grab my ticket which opens the gate and find a parking spot. I step out of my car and start walking the half mile to the Memorial Union. As I walk down the sidewalk, I meet various people passing by in various ways - on foot, skateboards, rollerblades, and bikes. They seem as many in number as the sand of the sea. Represented in the sea of people are those who come from different states, different cultures, different religions, different beliefs, and different ways of thinking. Sad to say, the only thing all these people have in common is their eternal state–condemned by a holy and righteous God because of their sin and on their way to eternal punishment.

This is the average sidewalk on the Arizona State University campus. I think to myself, “There is no way I can tell all of these people about Jesus Christ! Where do I even start?” Slowly I regain my composure and continue to head toward the Memorial Union. I walk up a few stairs (through people) into the dining area, head around the corner (through more people), and down another set of stairs (through even more people) into the lower dining area. There at a table, waiting for me, are a few ASU students from Re:vive (Tri-City’s college group) who are getting together for lunch.

We immediately start conversing. I ask them how their classes are going, and if they have any tests coming up. I then watch the table as the rest head off to get some food.

In the meantime, three girls come and sit down at the table which I am supposed to be guarding. My first reaction is to tell them that the table is already taken, but then I remember the story of Jesus and the woman at the well (John 4). Jesus said that He needed to go through Samaria because that Samaritan woman needed to hear the Gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ was able to give her eternal life. This scenario that I have run into seems very similar, and just as the Samaritan woman came to Jesus at the well, these three ASU students have come to me at the exact same area, place, time, and during the perfect circumstances (as the others went away to get food).

So quickly lunch is over, and we all go our separate ways. I walk away from that campus, again through the sea of people and reflect on the conversation at the table with those three ASU students. These are my thoughts, “When I look at the fields of people, and it just seems too great a harvest, the comforting thought comes to mind of what God expects of me concerning sharing Christ: ‘Just be faithful with the portion of the harvest that I have given to you. That is all I ask.’”

Sharing Christ with everyone in the world is an impossible task for a single Christian (I guess there is one way, but then you wake up and realize you were just dreaming!), but all God calls us to do is to be faithful with the people that He has placed in our paths. Let us not be ignorant of the opportunities that the Lord has divinely appointed for us but let us be alert to take advantage of them for the glory and honor of our Lord Jesus Christ. "And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel" (Ephesians 6:19).

Pastor Chris Koehn
College Pastor