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A Guest Post by Jessica Abriel 

I'm currently reading through a short, little nine-day devotional on being prayerful. Tonight's prompt was to focus on praying for advancement of the gospel, not just abroad, but in my own life as well. I thought of our church's mission statement, and was having a hard time coming up with a way that I could “make Jesus known” among the non-church people that I come into contact with on a day-to-day basis.

Not even an hour after I had read that devotional and prayed for a way to be a light to those around me, I saw a message on the site that I post some of my writing on. Now, this site is full of people from all walks of life, all ages, all beliefs, etc. I have over 6300 people that “follow” the blog that I post writing on, which is a number that baffles me on a daily basis. That means, I get to interact with them at any given time, should they choose to message me or vice versa.

One of the girls that I am mutually friendly with had posted a message that concerned me; she was depressed, at the end of her rope, feeling entirely hopeless. I felt that little tug in the back of my heart that I should talk to her. I have no real training or experience in how to talk people down from suicidal ledges, but I also knew that I couldn't just exit out of the app and leave her there. I sent her a very simple message, asking if she was okay and if she wanted to talk. She messaged me back. We corresponded back and forth for about an hour. I was able to calm her down a bit and really get to the heart of her problem; she was lonely and feeling unlovable. There was not much I could do other than assure her that she was certainly not worthless, as she believed she was. I'm hopeful that I was able to make a tiny bit of difference, perhaps in such a way that she will wake up tomorrow, rather than the alternative she was considering.

I'm not sure if this instance really counts as “making Jesus known.” I never mentioned anything to her that was specifically “Christian,” but I like to think that I was online at that exact time for a reason. I like to think that when I prayed, “God, please give me the words to help this girl,” that He listened and allowed me to speak something to her that she needed. I like to think that the song “Beautiful” by MercyMe that was put on my heart the moment I started talking to her, wasn't put there by accident, and that sharing it with her had a purpose. And maybe, just maybe, that's exactly the type of “making Jesus known” that I'm here for.

Jessica is an active participant in our faith family, serving with the Young Adults ministry, and as pianist on our worship team.  She is a writer at heart, and as it turns out, perfectly positioned to use her talents to make Jesus known.