I will meet Gilbert in Heaven

A dignified First Nations woman showed up one Sunday at Grace Point, she seemed quite comfortable with the idea of church, and at one point she spoke up during the service (speaking up during the service is quite common at Grace Point). She said something like, “40 years ago I lived way up north, and I was really struggling. One day, when I was coming off a 2 week bender, I decided it was time to change. I was walking through the mall in Leaf Rapids, Manitoba, and came across a bookstore. I wanted to get a Bible, but I looked at the row of Bibles on the shelf, and I needed some help. I asked the person working there if he could explain to me what the difference was between all these Bibles. The man took his time, and explained things to me, and that day, he led me to Jesus. I prayed and Jesus changed my life. I never went back to that bookstore, but I will never forget that man, and someday I will meet him in heaven, and tell him this story. Ever since that day, I have been going from church to church, all over Manitoba, telling them about Jesus and saying, ‘some day, I will meet Gilbert Berg in heaven, and thank him for leading me to Jesus.’”

I need to take you back 40 years in my life. I was born when my family lived in Leaf Rapids, Manitoba. My family had moved there to start a church in the small mining community. The church was in a small mall in the community, and my Dad thought a bookstore look in the “storefront,” would be a good way to connect with the community. My Dad’s name, of course, is Gilbert Berg.

I told this dignified woman that she wouldn’t have to wait to meet Gilbert Berg…he only lived a few blocks away!

To me, the connection was absolutely unbelievable and so meaningful. I talked to my Dad about this right away. I asked him if he remembered speaking to this woman…he could not. Of course he couldn’t! He spoke to people in the community all the time. He prayed with many people.

Sometimes we do good things for people that seem to wind up being meaningless, or forgotten. Sometimes it makes us wonder why we do these things for people in the first place. To me, this wonderful woman was a reminder that we have no idea what kind of impact our ministry to someone else might have. Here this woman was, telling the story of my Dad 40 years later…and he couldn’t even remember it!

We have no idea what kind of impact the things we do will have on someone’s life. But the results never were our responsibility. Our responsibility is to be faithful to what God asks us to do, not to MAKE things happen in people’s lives, just to be faithful.

It’s God’s job to take care of the results.