Clay and Granite -- The Contrast of Two Hearts

Well, I registered for school today! That's right; I am, once again, a college student. I never thought that I would one-day go to school with my daughters. I registered for one class. (I thought I should take it slow.) The class I chose at our local community college: "Contemporary Moral Problems" -- a class within the Philosophy major. It should be an interesting class; and I plan to share the Law and the Gospel with every student in the class. The professor is reportedly a Christian.

So, since I was already on the campus :-) ..... I decided to do my street fishing for The Way of the Master Radio show, from there. It was a beautiful day, so I found an empty bench and spent about an hour in prayer and Bible reading. It was the sweetest hour of the day.

As I finished reading from the Gospel of Luke, I saw two young ladies walking toward me. One had a clipboard tucked under her arm. They were looking right at me. And I've seen that particular look before, on campus. "Would you please take my survey?" The girl with the clipboard asked.

"Sure! What kind of survey?"

"It's for my psychology class."

"Oh, okay."

"Great!" She said with a smile. "Okay. Do you like to be surrounded by a large group of friends?"

I buried my face in my hands. I began to heave my shoulders and act as though I was sobbing. "Why do you assume I have a large group of friends? Oh, this is terrible! I can't believe you asked me that!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" She said sympathetically.

I slowly lifted my head, which revealed a big smile on my face. "Just kidding."

Well, her friend thought it was funny. :-)

She led me through the rest of her survey. Another question she asked was: "Do you find it easy to speak loudly when you are with a group of people or in a crowd."

"Ohhhh, yes. I have no problem with that."

My hope was that once she finished her survey, I would be able to take her through one of my own; but the girls saw other perspective survey participants and hurried off. Fortunately, I was able to put a Billion Dollar Bill in each of their hands, before they walked away.

Our guest for the first hour of the show was a young man named Roy. Roy is a nutrition major and hopes to work as a personal trainer when he finishes school. Roy has a Catholic background, but hasn't practiced his faith for some time.

Listen to Ray and Todd's conversation with Roy.

I could tell by Roy's demeanor that the conversation was having an impact on him. When the conversation was finished, Roy handed my phone back to me. Roy was already about ten minutes late to class, so I told him it would be all right if he didn't have time for a conversation with me.

Roy sat down beside me and said, "No. That's all right. I can be late for class." He wanted to talk!

Roy was like clay. He was pliable and seemed to be humble at heart. He never tried to justify his sin before God. He knew he was not right with God and it appeared to genuinely concern him. I spent some time explaining to Roy how incapable he was of getting right with God, on his own.

Roy was honest when he said that he wasn't ready to give his life to Christ. He was a young man who didn't want to be a false convert. While it was sad that his heart had not yet been pricked to the point of crying out to God in repentance and faith, it was refreshing to talk to someone who recognized, even in his unregenerate state, the difference between true and false conversion.

Listen to my follow-up conversation with Roy.

Our guest for the second hour of the show was a 17-year-old girl named Lindsey. Lindsey was hanging out with her friend Whitney, who wasn't a student at the school. Lindsey described herself as a good person who believed in reincarnation.

Lindsey had a smile that could light up a room. But her t-shirt contradicted the smile on her face. Her t-shirt read: "The last hope for humanity is a high-power machine gun." Lindsey said that the line was from a recent movie.

Lindsey smiled often during the first part of her conversation with Ray. But, oh, did that change.

Listen to Ray's conversation with Lindsey.

I spent several minutes with Lindsey, once she was done talking to Ray. I told Lindsey that I noticed a change in her demeanor, during her phone conversation. I thought she was going to start crying. I asked her what happened. "I was kinda offended."

"Why"

She used words like "agenda" and "propaganda" in describing her conversation with Ray.

Listen to my follow-up conversation with Lindsey.

As you listen to our conversation, you will notice that I don't get very far with her. And you will also notice that I'm moving rather quickly from point to point. The reason for that was that I was looking for any small fissure in Lindsey's heart of stone. I couldn't find one. That doesn't mean in wasn't there; and it doesn't mean that her heart was not pricked on some level. I just couldn't see it.

Now, the agnostic or professed atheist might read this and applaud Lindsey's apparent stalwart effort in fending off the "propagandist theists." But there is nothing to applaud, really. It's very sad, actually.

Today, I saw two hearts. One appeared to be made of clay. The other appeared to be made of granite. Was Lindsey's dramatic, negative change in demeanor really a result of an offense taken? Maybe. Or could it have been that this young lady's heart is not as stony as she would have us think?

I don't know. And I don't have to know. All I can do is bring the same message to each person, regardless of the condition of their hearts, or the outward appearance of their demeanor. All I can do is pray that both Roy and Lindsey, whose hearts, although different in some ways, are similar in that both of these young people are lost and bound for hell, apart from the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please pray that the Lord will draw both Roy and Lindsey to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God is always and forever faithful. His Word never returns void. He is sovereign, and it is a joy to serve as one of His ambassadors.

It was another good day of fishing.