LOVING
TRACY TO CHRIST

Topics: Conversion; Example; Kindness; Love; Mercy; Patience; Self-control

References: Matthew 5:14–16; 1 John 4:7–11

Gavin and I were helping my pastor guide thirty lively teens through an all-night “lock-in” at church. Early in the evening, Gavin challenged me to a game of table tennis in the fellowship hall. Our game quickly heated up.

With the score tied and only three points to go before the end of the game, Tracy, an eighth-grader, grabbed the ball and kept it from us. My first impulse was irritation. But then a Scripture passage that our group had read that afternoon came to mind: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

Gavin and I joked with Tracy until she finally tossed the ball back onto the table. We thanked her and finished the game.

Hours later, after an evangelistic film, Tracy walked down the aisle with six others to receive Christ as Savior. Later that night, when we gathered for testimonies, Tracy said, “I grew up in a family where nobody goes to church. I’ve learned to get attention by making people mad at me. But earlier this evening I saw something different.”

Gavin and I looked at each other and raised our eyebrows. “When I stole the ball from those guys,” she said, pointing at us, “they didn’t get mad at me. They didn’t fight back. I decided right then that I wanted whatever it was they have.”

—Clark Cothern, “I Saw Something Different in Those Guys,” Decision (May 2000)