I have found that most people are open to talking about faith when I approach the topic with their permission, on their terms and in a way that they can relate to it.

I was on a flight heading for a vacation destination with my wife. Sitting in the row with us was a man in his late-30s also on the first day of his vacation and happy to chat. In the course of our conversation he made a brief, negative comment about his church experience growing up.

After we had been talking for a while, I asked about his church experience comment, “Would I be correct to assume from your comment that faith is not a part of your life?” He acknowledged that I had assumed correctly. Because he seemed open to discuss the topic, I asked him, “Would you be open to sharing why faith is not a part of your life?”

He responded “I would be happy to tell you,” and he went on to say, “I just don’t believe in Jesus as God. I don’t think the stories in the Bible are credible. I don’t believe the stories of miracles.”

As we talked, he said he believed that there is a greater power that created all things. He even acknowledged that there was likely life after death. But he really didn’t know about heaven or hell or how to even learn about it.

To his relief, I let him know that I wasn’t going to make faith the topic of conversation for the whole flight. I shared that I only wanted to have the discussion because I have a strong conviction that there is life after we die and Jesus is the way to eternal life. I said, “Given that you believe that there is life after death, my hope is that our conversation will cause you to seek to understand the truth.” He agreed to continue.

Knowing that he was interested in factual information, I shared that I had recently read a book about Near Death Experiences and that the author had done research on over 1,000 stories to confirm the truth and reliability of people dying, leaving their bodies, going to heaven and returning. He focused his interviews on people all over the world who had nothing to gain from sharing their story publicly.

I shared a couple of stories including this one about a woman who was in the hospital in surgery where she died and left her body and traveled up through the ceiling of the hospital. As she traveled up, she saw a gym shoe on the third floor roof. She could describe the size, color and writing on the shoe. When she returned to her body and woke up and shared her story and encounter with heaven, no one wanted to believe her until they went up on the roof and found the shoe she described in the exact place and fitting the exact description.

I shared that John Burke, who wrote the book Imagine Heaven, had been an atheist and from his research on near death experiences became a Christian and eventually became a pastor. He first learned about near death experiences from reading Life after Life by Raymond Moody when his father was dying from cancer.

He responded very positively to the stories as there was tangible, factual, verifiable evidence to support people’s experiences with Jesus and heaven. He was very interested when I showed him Life after Life on Amazon. He even said he was interested in getting the books.

I planted a seed to get him started on his personal faith journey. My prayer is that he will buy and read the books and that God will create divine appointments where he will meet other believers who will have the ultimate opportunity to lead him faith. Only time will tell if I meet him in heaven someday.