My visit to the home of an atheist was at the request of his daughter. He had recently been released from a local hospital after being treated for advanced throat cancer and his prospects for survival were poor to none. My mission was to bring him to faith but the years he had invested in building arguments against the existence of God made my goal seem almost impossible to achieve.

Communication with this bitter man was complicated by the fact that he was unable to speak so our conversations had to be carried on by his use of a lap sized blackboard. Another barrier to getting my message of God’s love to this sufferer was his talkative profane parrot which had been well schooled in his master’s political positions, the seriousness of his illness and his hatred of preachers.

Finally I learned that this man’s atheism was rooted in his observation of the painful suffering of a relative he had respected in spite, according to him, of her faith and consistency of life. I hadn’t known this woman but had no reason to doubt his high praise of her. This did help me to understand one of his barriers to faith. In light of her suffering, he was unable to reconcile her long period of pain to the existence of a loving God. Arguing that her time in heaven would by now have more than compensated for her earthly trials would never have convinced him because he didn’t believe heaven existed.

To say the least, things weren’t going well in this conversation.

Something had to change.

Then, suddenly, I knew what to do and asked a question that shattered this atheist’s unbelief: “Is there anything about the change in your daughter’s life that you can’t explain apart from a work of God?”

“Yes!” he replied without a moment’s hesitation.

His quick reply let me know she had changed so much that he couldn’t deny the miracle of new life in her and with that acknowledgement our argument ended and his unbelief quickly faded away.

Now our conversation changed completely. We could talk about God’s love for him, the sufferings of Christ on the cross; His death and resurrection.

Light was breaking through in his understanding of faith and he wasn’t just parroting answers to please me. Faith was being born. New life was on the way to a former doubter’s address and this good news would contribute to his happy daughter’s new life.

Thinking back on this special experience helps me remember that demonstrating our faith in God by how we live is more important than trying to win arguments.

We’ve all heard it before: “How you live speaks so loud that I can’t hear what you say!” And when memory transports me back to an angry atheist with a profane parrot being changed by the consistent life a caring daughter I realize again it’s true.

Someone out there is waiting for a caring person to show up who will help change disturbing doubts to dynamic faith that will be the answer to the prayers of their families, friends and churches.

Perhaps it’s you!