Story Telling: Not with the Wisdom of Words

Written by an Image Bearer of the Living God

Not With the Wisdom of Words

“For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.”1 Corinthians 1:17 (NKJV)

I can remember the first time I officially shared the gospel. I was pumping gas at a Chevron station on the corner of Russell Cave and New Circle back in the late nineties. It was cold and evening had come. A woman pulled up on the opposite side of the pump.

I smiled. She smiled. She started pumping her gas. She mentioned something about gas prices and Kentucky weather, how they were both unpredictable.

That was my cue. Despite the cold breeze, I immediately felt my hand get sweaty on the gas pump handle. My heart rate increased. There was a swooshing sound in my ears and I had a strange tightness in my gut.

This is it, I thought.

I smiled. “Yeah,” I said. “But I know one thing that is predictable.”

I can’t remember the actual words that I said, or in what order I said them, but somehow I got the entire gospel presentation out.

We finished pumping our gas, went inside to pay, and as we said goodbye, she said she’d think about what I’d told her, but she wasn’t ready to make any big decisions at that time.

Now, decades later, I think about that time. I’m glad I didn’t walk away from that Chevron station thinking I’d done and said everything perfectly. And, as much as I know all of heaven rejoices when one dead sinner is made alive again, I’m also thankful the woman on the other side of the pump didn’t have some radical and immediate conversion.

Because if I had spoken with the tongues of angels, if the heavens had split open with a tremendous light and shined down upon this fresh-saved soul, I probably would have thought it had a lot to do with me.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I do pray the Lord drew this woman to His side, that she heard the truth of the gospel, and that the Lord gave her faith to repent and believe and walk out His calling on her life.

I do pray that I didn’t mess up the message.

But mostly, I pray that the cross of Christ is bigger in my own heart than the wisdom of my words.