I have been asked to write a new song — a song of deliverance and hope — “a song that will bring testimony of God’s glory, and that will cause those that have no hope to hear and run towards the Lord and not away from Him.”

When I first heard this word proclaimed to me, I was inspired by the last line — that those with no hope might run towards the Lord and not away from Him. The way I took it was that there were currently those without hope who might be led, for whatever reason, to run away from Him, and I was to turn that around with a song — a song that would lead those with no hope to run to Jesus.

We decided to spend this week in the Catch thinking and writing about running to Jesus. But I started this morning writing first about why someone would run away from the Lord, and I must admit, it got pretty depressing coming up with all the reasons I could think of. It turned out all the reasons were cultural, having to do with the poor reputation of some Christians in today’s society. In the end, with the help of Marti, it became clear there was nothing to be gained by coming up with however many reasons why anyone would run away from the Lord. None of the reasons had anything to do with Jesus. There’s nothing we can do about this instead of focusing on what would make someone run towards the Lord.

Here’s the most important thing to remember. It’s all about relationships. A real relationship trumps a good message any day. If we are developing a relationship with someone, we are on track with the quickest and best way to introduce someone to the Lord. And it’s a process they can trust because they are coming to trust us. Relationships are a solid foundation for introducing someone to Christ or for discipling someone who already knows Him, though not a means to an end, they simply provide a means by which we can impart truthfully what is on our heart.

We used to have Billy Graham, gospel tracts, Christian concerts, weekend retreats … now we have just us, and there’s nothing better. When we walk with someone, we walk and talk and listen and tell. And we learn something as we share something and through love and vulnerability, the truth gets imparted by our lives. The Holy Spirit lives in us and we can trust Him to direct a relationship in the way in which it should go. The most surefire way to have someone run to Jesus is have them walk and talk with us so they can understand why we need Him so much.