Dear Man at the Roman Baths in Bath, England,
Even though it’s been so many years I’m not sure I could spot you in a line-up and I never learned your name, I will never forget our ‘chance’ meeting and the important lessons I learned from you.
You didn’t know that my friend and I visiting the Roman Baths that day had been childhood friends and that I had been witnessing to him in my (far too) subtle ways for years. You didn’t know that I had dragged him to summer Bible studies in college and forced him to listen to Tim Keller sermons and gave him lots of books to read and had many, many, many conversations about God with him. You didn’t know that I had been praying for him and hoping he’d become a believer for as long as I had known him – which was about 10 years at that point.
What you did know was that you chose to spend your days standing by a tapestry on the wall as visitors left the Baths, and called them over as they walked by you. You did it often enough that the people who owned the Baths asked you to only stay in the gift shop area. You drew people in with a story about some of the famous people woven into a timeline on a the tapestry. You had enough experience to draw tourists in to an amusing story, and then you told a story about someone in the monarchy who came to the Baths to be healed. They did not recover, and then you asked the question you had been waiting for the right moment to ask: The Baths didn’t save them and we don’t know where they went after they didn’t recover and died. We know the Baths won’t heal you, either. Do you know where you’re going to go after you die?
I held my breath. My friend admitted that he wasn’t sure.
You told him all he had to do was admit that he was a sinner and couldn’t ever earn God’s favor, but that Jesus came and died for him, and all he had to do was repent and ask God to accept him through Jesus. My friend said he knew those things, but hadn’t ever asked God to accept him.
You asked him what was stopping him from taking the plunge. He thought for a minute, then said, ‘nothing.’ So you led him in a prayer right there in the middle of the gift shop at the Roman Baths in Bath, England, so far from London (where he was working at the time) and so very far from our hometown of New Orleans.
To you, it was another day of witnessing to tourists in the Roman Baths. To me, it was one of the sweetest moments of my life, just to be an observer and to learn so many valuable lessons from that experience. I learned that Christians don’t have to agree on every point of doctrine in order to be united in Christ. Through our conversation, we learned that we have vastly different beliefs about God. But we also learned that we both love Jesus, and that’s what matters the most. I also learned that it is okay to be direct (lovingly, of course) when telling people about Jesus. There’s nothing to fear.
When we parted, we knew we’d never see each other again on earth. But we also knew that we’d all meet each other again someday, in the new heavens and the new earth, so it was a joyful parting.
You didn’t know how the seeds you planted would turn out. I’m delighted to tell you that they took deep root in my friend. He eventually decided to go to med school and married a wonderful girl who also loves Jesus, and they have two children. Deciding to follow Jesus has been very difficult for him with his close-knit family, though, because they don’t understand his beliefs. It’s not been an easy road to walk, trying to honor his parents while following Jesus. But how could you work as a doctor during our country’s biggest health crisis without Jesus? He has no regrets.
So thank you, dear man at the Roman Baths. Without the Spirit working in you, I’d probably still be mailing books and sermons to my friend without ever asking the question, “what’s stopping you from…?’
Your grateful sister in Christ,
Ruth
I’ve been married to my best friend for almost 18 years, and we are so fortunate to have a 12 year old daughter and 9 year old twin boys. I love to make music and teach and exercise, avoid cooking at all costs, and dream about having the time to read. I strive to fully believe the words of Paul: “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” – Ruth Stith
Stooping For Manna 
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