How good of a Christian do you have to be to lovingly point your neighbor to Jesus? Or, to put it another way, can you help lead someone to Jesus Christ on your worst day?

It was just another day for a mom with small children playing in the back yard. Renée managed to calmly put a naughty young child in a time out. Then to cool off she walked back into the house and closed the sturdy wooden back door a little too aggressively. Who doesn’t slam a door from time to time, right? Only this particular wooden door had a very old window that promptly broke into pieces. After getting over her initial embarrassment, Renée immediately thought of her new neighbor friend, Karen, whose husband, Ed, did home repairs.

Karen and Renée had become friends a few months earlier and had even started doing a Bible study together. Ed, however, was wary of people he didn’t know. Yet when asked, Ed was more than happy to come right over to fix the window. Once he got there, he relaxed, met the kids and teased them, and discovered they were actually quite a friendly family too. Out of a humbling, “worst day” experience came a “best neighbors” friendship, and a chance to share about Jesus Christ.  

The reality? On our worst days, we can go to our neighbors in weakness, ask them to serve us, and know that God has tremendous good in store for them and for us. 

This is Luis Palau.