God turned reluctant experience into something unforgettable

His name was Jan, and I really didn't want to be his escort through the Seattle-Tacoma airport and beyond that to Denver. I was tired and in no mood to try to be gracious to a foreign visitor who had a history of getting lost in airports.

But a mutual friend had asked that favor of me, and it's not easy to turn down a friend. Jan was a Czech theology professor who had come to the U.S. for a religious conference. It was the summer of 1989, and Czechoslovakia was a solidly communist country.

We engaged in some small talk on the way to the airport. After we had settled into our seats on the jumbo jet, I asked him how he became a Christian. As heads all around us swiveled to better catch our conversation, this little, professorial-looking man told me the story.

At age 13 and ready to enlist in The Communist Youth League, Jan's curiosity was aroused by two events that happened at school. The first was a statement by a teacher that something or other "proved God doesn't exist." Jan wondered how that was possible, since negative proof is almost impossible.

The second was a fascination with the life of Jan Hus, a Czech hero to whom he was introduced in a history class. Reading about him on his own, Jan discovered that he was a committed Christian and his faith motivated his patriotism.

Wanting to know more about this faith and this "disproof" of God, Jan tried to find a Bible, where he figured he could find out about both. But Bibles were banned in Czechoslovakia.

Knowing a family in the village who were rumored to be Christians, he turned to them. At considerable risk they loaned him a Bible, which he read for three years. At age 16, on his own, with no help from preachers or parents or evangelists or friends, he committed his life to Jesus Christ.

Jan made the mistake of telling someone, and the word got out. He was barred from high school graduation, which meant he couldn't go on to college. For three years he worked in the coal mines while trying to find someone who would champion his cause and help him get into school again.

He finally succeeded, ended up a theological seminary professor, and now was sharing this fascinating story with a man who just a few hours earlier hadn't wanted to be there listening.

I left Jan in Denver, but I carried two lessons with me. The first was the wonder of a young boy, strictly on his own, standing up to the pressures of communist ideology all around him. "My word shall not return to me empty," God is quoted as saying in Isaiah 55:11; "it shall accomplish what it was sent out to do."

The second was the wonder of how God turned my reluctant obedience into an experience I will never forget. What an exciting trip that turned out to be! And what an exciting God He turns out to be when we are willing to be obedient!