Roy: Maybe I didn't try hard enough? Or was it too hard?

It was another great day on the streets of Durham. We had the privilege of praying with people to come to Christ, others to be restored to fellowship, and others to be healed by God’s power.

One such man was Roy. We met him at five points and struck up a conversation about all the people passing by and the games they might be playing. Roy seemed to have lots of insight into the lives of the people on the street; after all, he had been on the street himself for over ten years.

Roy told us stories of sleeping in a clump of trees right by the railroad track (he pointed to the spot) and how tough life really was. He would sleep for perhaps an hour at the longest, then he would get up and walk for a while. When he would get tired enough, he would lie down and sleep a little longer, then he would repeat the cycle. Finally, the long night would be over and he would face another day which, incidentally, wasn’t much better than the night. He would sit on a bench and watch the people. Then he was walk around the block and reclaim his bench and try to think of something with which he could entertain himself. Finally, Roy had enough and he found someone with whom he could share a room and now he has a bed to sleep on at night. Still, Roy acknowledged, his life is pretty empty.

And life wasn’t always this way. Roy recalled that as a young man he met a girl, fell in love, and got married. He got an apartment for the two of them and started his own business. He was doing well, enjoying his new wife, prospering in his business, and even taking an active role in his church. Life was good . . . but Roy wasn’t satisfied. To fill the empty spot in his life, he turned to alcohol and other things the world offered him. But, not only did they not satisfy his deep hunger, the robbed him of everything he had. He lost his business, his wife left him, his friends deserted him, and he found himself on the street with nothing.

“So, Roy,” I said to him, “Isn’t it time to come to the Lord with what is left of your life and allow Him to make of you what He has intended all along?”

Roy’s answer was, “I tried that. It didn’t work out.”

“So, why do you suppose it didn’t work out?”

“I don’t know,” Roy said, “Maybe I just didn’t try hard enough. I don’t know.”

“Well, how hard did you try?”

Roy assured me, “I tried pretty hard. I went to church, I read the Bible, I prayed, I tried to do good things, I tried to help people out, I tried not to drink . . . ” On and on Roy went. He convinced me that he had tried pretty hard.

Then I asked him, “Could it be that your tried too hard?” He looked at me with a very puzzled look. Nobody had ever suggested that he tried too hard. I said, “A transformed life is not about what you can do by trying hard enough; it is about what God can do by the power of His grace.” This seemed like a concept to Roy. He had always thought that being a Christian was about trying hard enough to be good enough to deserve God’s favor.

I shared with him for along time about God’s grace as opposed to human goodness. I reminded him of the truth of Romans 4:5 “People are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.” I said to Roy, “If you will fully give your life to Christ today and trust him to change you from the inside out instead of trying to change yourself from the outside in, you will see the difference you have always wanted to see in your life. Are you ready to do that?” Roy said he was. We prayed with him and he confessed faith in the finished work of Christ. Roy said, “I tried before and failed; God will have to do it this time.”

I think he got the idea!