Here's my old beat up Bible. Several pages from the front is the "Presented to..." page which reads, "Presented to Doug Glenn by Doug Glenn on February 9, 1991. This Bible has gone pretty much everywhere I have gone since that time...which explains why it is so beat up.
As a result of my "public" reading of this Bible, two interesting things happened on this trip (I'm in Chicago at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare all week -- 11/5-10). Things like this do not always happen, but they do happen periodically. This trip has been unusual because it has happened twice in two days.
First Event: Sitting in the Pittsburgh airport waiting for my flight to Chicago. I pull out my Bible to do my daily reading as prescribed by Robert Murray M'Cheyne's Calendar for Daily Readings (highly recommended for anyone wanting to read through the Bible in a year). During the course of my reading, I got very sleepy and took a snooze right there in the airport with my Bible open on my lap. I woke up and finished my reading. As the flight is loading, a black man who was obviously not native to the US, said to me in his non-American-black-voice, "You a Christian?" I said, "yes." He said, "I'll see you in heaven," and then went on his way not giving me a chance to respond.
I'm looking forward to meeting this man again in heaven (assuming I make it!). There have been probably over a dozen other instances like this in my work career where I've identified other Christians or they've identified me but for only a very brief moment and the idea of "seeing you again in heaven" or "see you again someday" with an understanding nod and wink that we were talking about seeing each other again in heaven has happened. It has always been an encouragement.
Second Event: I'm sitting at breakfast this morning (11/6/07) in the restaurant on the second level of the Hyatt Regency O'Hare reading my daily Bible reading. I happen to look up just as two people were leaving the restaurant. The second person was a rather attractive middle-aged women who whispered to me from halfway across the restaurant in a tone that said "I don't really want to interrupt you, but....," "Have a good quiet time," and then she left. I, of course, said "thank you," as she was leaving. I smiled and went back to reading.
Many Christians want others to know that they are a Christian and it is important for our assurance that we publicly profess Christ even if its as simple as the interchange I described above. Since it is tough in our modern day culture to make this known to just anyone because of the possible dreaded "offense" that might be taken, it is much easier and safer to make this known to others who appear to be Christians. This is a good thing. It is encouraging to know they're out there...there are other Christians lurking around nearly every corner and behind every bush. If you make yourself known, many will speak up and make themselves known. It's just as fun for the one making themselves known as it is for the one being informed. For both, it is an encouragement.
Final thought...one reason it is so comforting to find other Christians in public these days is because the public display of religion is a fairly rare thing. Since it doesn't happen that frequently, it is a high-value event when it does happen. Because it is a scarce event, the value of each event is high (think supply and demand). I'm in favor of lowering the value of these experiences by making them more abundant. Feel free to join my campaign to lower the value of public displays of Christianity by more frequently making your Christianity known.
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