Hungry Heart for God at Any Age

What a joy to lead a hungry heart to eternal salvation with Jesus Christ!

Here’s the story. My wife, Kari had made an appointment to buy some hog panels from a farmer north of Blue, Grass, Iowa. We drove up in our rusty, trusty F-150 pickup to his farm. There we met Gage*, an elderly farmer.

The three of us together began to cut the tie wires binding the panels before loading them in the truck. Removing the wires from the panels turned out to be time-consuming, but gave us time to talk. Gage had farmed for over 50 years and had been married for about the same length of time. He and his wife had three sons, one of whom had died of cancer four years ago. “There’s no greater tragedy than to lose a son,” Gage explained with grief in his voice.

We continued working, talking, untying and loading the hog panels.  After a bit I took a deep breath and asked, “Have you ever received Jesus Christ into your life?” Gage immediately stopped work, looked me straight in the eye and stated, “No, I have not.” By the way he said it, I detected an inquiry in his voice.

“We have really good news for you,” I announced. I stopped working too. We were facing each other on opposite sides of a hog panel which was lying on the barn floor. “Jesus Christ died for our sins—of which I have too many—and He rose again from the dead. He has a free gift for us, the gift of salvation and the forgiveness of our sins.”

The farmer listened intently. I had been praying, Lord send me to a hungry heart. Here was a good, hardworking man who had never received Christ as Savior. Yet God loved this man. Even through the tragic, cancerous death of his son, God had been preparing him. His hungry heart drew compassion out of me.

“Every now and then I look up to the sky and say a few words. Sometimes it even works,” Gage remarked with a faint smile.

I continued with the good news. “It’s not a matter of how good we are or even how bad we are; rather, the Bible says we are saved by faith and not by our works. We just need to put simple child-like trust in Him.” The farmer nodded and kept listening so I continued, “God has been preparing you for this, wouldn’t you agree?”

He breathed out a definitive, “Ye-ah!” that spoke volumes. With only one word he was saying, “You bet He has! No doubt about it. This is what I’ve been waiting for.”

“Would you like to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior right now?”

“I’ll have a talk with Him later,” was all he said and immediately went back to work.

“Yes, let’s talk later,” I replied.

We were only about half done with the job so we continued to visit about this and that. I told him I was seventy one years old and he turned out to be seventy-six. He asked about our family. He admitted farming was getting to be a burden at his age.

Finally, we had the truck loaded. Kari paid for the panels and we were ready to drive home. But I knew the most important business was not completed.

“Gage,” I said, “we talked earlier about Christ Jesus and His offer of a free gift of salvation.” I quoted Revelation 3:20 and explained how God had been knocking at the door of his heart for several years.  “Are you ready to accept Christ into your life as your Savior?”

There was no hesitation in his voice as he replied, “Yes, I am. But I want to do it when I’m alone, if that’s OK with you.” “Sure,” I answered, “When it’s dark tonight and you’re alone, go ahead and ask Him into your life in childlike trust.” He nodded affirmatively.

Will this man follow through? He was prepared by God, at least in part through the death of his son. He had a hungry heart for God. I am confident he met with Christ Jesus that night.

For more stories of Chicken Evangelism, click here.