Dale Bourke was attending a publishing conference
when her friend, Bruce, offered to give her a ride to the airport. As they were
about to leave, the hotel doorman told them the hotel shuttle bus had broken
down and if they could take another passenger to the airport. They said they
would and the man jumped in the back seat.
Bruce asked the man where he worked. The back-seat passenger mentioned the name of a Christian publishing house, which was affiliated with a campus organization. Bruce said, “I have fond memories of that campus ministry because I attended a retreat by them in 1972 in New Hampshire. I became a Christian at that retreat.”
Bruce went on to explain that a year later, when he gave his testimony, his entire family came to the Lord. His sister eventually became a Wycliffe missionary and translated Scripture for a people group in Africa.
But he wasn’t finished explaining the domino effect of the retreat. Bruce’s parents became publishers of Christian books and published some of the most popular Christian books over several decades. Bruce later became a publisher of a major Christian publishing house that has printed and distributed books in numerous countries. The impact of that one retreat had reverberated throughout the world!
The man in the back seat was stunned. Then, he timidly admitted, “I led that retreat. It was my first time as a conference leader and I felt like a total failure. Until this moment, I’ve always believed it was one of the biggest failures in my life.” (Dale Hanson Bourke, Second Calling, Integrity Publishers 2006, 208-209).
The conference leader felt like a total failure because he was looking at his own inadequacy instead of God’s ability to cause the increase (1 Cor. 3:6). One apple seed can produce an apple tree, which can produce an apple orchard.
We can learn a valuable lesson through this. We usually can’t see how God will use our obedience to reach people we don’t even know. If you’ll serve the Lord with gladness (Psalm 100:2) and leave the results to Him, you’ll never feel like a failure.
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