Love on

Sometimes it takes some pretty tough words from others to get me out of my worry state for people who are avoiding thinking about and vis a vis not making a decision I think would be good for their eternal life.
Yesterday a man reminded me, "You can't save everyone."
He wanted me to cheer up, be happier, lighter in my emotions but the conversation I had just had must have left worry on my face.
I talked fairly long with this person and I cannot be easily... the word ensnared came to mind but that would suggest I had been bamboozled into this lengthy refutement of each of his ideas. Basically, he is a stranger to me but it was at least the second time I had spoken with him. Because of the times we live in and probably because of the kind of person I am... even a first conversation will have any heavy topic in it... life, death, eternity... and I have at times been very good at giving situational advice to someone if I think they would benefit from the environment I suggest they try. As the conversation ended, this man said, "I'll tell you what... when I die I will come and tell you what it is like." My response was, "No, don't do that. Your story will be too sad and I won't be able to handle the sorrow."
There are days I wish I was more like I was in my twenties when within each of these conversations I would search for the seed of spiritual life within the person I was speaking to and, if and when I found it, I could be content that the person had the necessary exposure to truth so that a decision for eternal life could be made... should the person wish to.
Nowadays, I am not finding that seed in all people I meet anymore... or is it just that the rebellion to the seed they were given calls out louder?
This could be it.
So, this morning my thoughts were refined and simplified in one thought that came to my mind. People who are not saved do not wish to be.
As hard as that is for someone like me to accept, it is true.
'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' Romans 10:13
I believe that and every time I need help I call on the name of the Lord. If I didn't I would be calling my son all the time. I don't want to be a pain to him so you can ask him how many times I have called him to help me these last four years.
Not very many. That's for sure.
So, as I was helping another person out this week I asked... aren't you a Christian? The answer from this person was no so I said... 'Well, then you couldn't pray and ask God for help I guess.'
The facts are... anyone can call on the Lord for help but many are choosing not to. So, I helped out with this situation going way beyond what I normally do because this person was going to be in a big fluster until their momentary problem was resolved and the bigger issues of life were not going to be helpful to discuss further with this person. It doesn't mean that I wasn't frustrated with the one I was helping but I could only do what I could do in that situation.
When I relayed a bit of this story to a very young man later that day and told him that this person still had not accepted the Lord, his response was, "Too bad for them."
It came out of his mouth so swiftly, firmly, and matter- of- fact that he really surprised me with his instantaneous acceptance of the fact that people decide or don't decide to accept the Lord.
He really made me laugh because I cannot be like that but it sometimes takes a very young person to be that forthright... his 'hardliner' attitude freed me up immediately. He was just a youth so I am not going to follow his short road of experience but I will apply the basic idea his words indicated.
People choose... or choose not to.