Illus. Pastor Bud Buchner, a well-known street minister in Lansing, MI, was once counseling with a man high on drugs and alcohol. The guy wasn’t being responsive to his invitation because he had to get to the bar across the Michigan Ave. in downtown Lansing. Michigan Ave. is a five-lane street that leads right up to the capitol building. There are no crosswalks except at the corners, and Pastor Bud knew that this guy planned on j-walking to get across. So he asked the guy a rendition of this familiar question… “If you get hit by a car and die as you cross that street, where do you think you’re going from there.” The guy shrugged it off and started to make it way over to the bar, but for some reason, probably heightened by his physical state, he couldn’t bring himself to cross the street. And even though, it took a couple of days…that man eventually accepted Christ and is now a brother in the faith, no longer on the streets, but working a full-time job with a family.
The old technique may still work because when we confront our destiny, our perception changes.