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She also gave our last keynote address of the conference, which encouraged me to write the following piece—hopefully it encourages you as much as it has me It occurred on my way home from the conference, and illustrates the critical elements of her teaching.
Per the Babbie Mason School for Effective Witnessing*
*A fictional school, of course. Babbie Mason is a two-time Dove Award-winning Christian singer/songwriter, a Christian Music Hall of Fame inductee, author, and TV talk show host. She gave a compelling keynote address at the 2026 Blue Lake Christian Writers Conference, in which she outlined her discovery for effective witnessing, after praying that God would help her overcome a fear of sharing her faith due to possible rejection, pushback, hostility, etc. It was a veritable master class.
I met Jay on an airplane, while traveling from Pensacola to Denver following the Christian Writers Conference cited above. I was on the aisle seat, Jay was in the center, and his girlfriend, with whom I never spoke, was seated at the window. I did notice she was a pretty girl with a large ring in her nose. Jay had black polish on his fingernails. Not sure if it meant anything in particular, but it caused me to wonder.
Midway through the flight, Jay took out his laptop and surprised me by watching a YouTube video of a professor teaching a calculus lesson using a whiteboard—a rigid rotating body problem, as I recall. It looked so familiar that I said aloud at one point that I used to teach calculus in college. Jay instantly stopped the video, saying, “Really?”
I responded affirmatively. He asked me where I had taught. I answered, “At the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, my alma mater.” He asked me to tell him more, especially about my advanced degrees.
“Actually, I have two—a Ph.D. in lasers and optics, and a doctor of optometry,” mentioning that I had owned a family optometry practice for over twenty years. He was obviously impressed, and said he’d like to follow a similar path with his education. Then he stunned me by asking what my best advice would be for him as he went forward.
I complimented him on the maturity of that question, then, after learning he was only 21, asked if I might be honest with him. “Of course,” he replied.
“First, let me ask you a question—where are you spiritually?”
“Somewhere between an atheist and an agnostic, I suppose.”
“That’s great,” I replied. “You’re me when I was your age. Growing up in a Jewish family, I wanted nothing to do with religion. My advice is that you take the same challenge given to me.”
“Are you going to tell me that you found Jesus?”
“No. I’m going to tell you that He found me, if you’ll listen.”
“Sure,” he said.
I shared my testimony using a story that occurred at the Academy when I was 21. During that time, I was challenged by a preacher to not listen to another word he, or anyone else, would say about Jesus. Not to listen to another word he would say sounded crazy to me after just spending so much time with him. Rather, he challenged me to read the Bible for myself. If the God of the universe, who is credited with writing it through men didn’t touch me in a significant way, then I was to put it aside and consider that I’d at least read the world’s most popular book. If, however, God moved me by what I read and touched my life, then the preacher asked if I’d be willing to follow after God. It seemed simple, so I agreed to do that.
I readily admitted to Jay that it took me over ten years to finish reading the Bible, at which time I had a supernatural encounter with Jesus Himself. I was grateful for that encounter during that season of life, as I was struggling with some challenging issues and truly ready to listen. Everything was beginning to make sense, and my life has not been the same since.
I recommended that Jay take the same challenge, only that he not wait to follow through as I did. I repeated the challenge by saying, “If God doesn’t touch you through your reading of the Bible, then toss it, and consider you’ve read the world’s most popular book. If He does move you, however, then would you be willing to follow Him?”
He said he would. After our hour-long conversation, the plane landed and we bid each other goodbye.
This interaction highlights the four lessons I learned at the Babbie Mason School:
1. Don’t force anything. Start with something non-threatening to anyone, thereby establishing a relationship over something in common. That way, they’ll be much more likely to engage.
2. Wait for the moving of the Holy Spirit; in the conversation with Jay, it was his being moved to request life-giving advice.
3. Share your story, remembering that no one can take your story from you or prove it wrong.
4. Continue to pray, but get out of the way. Then the Holy Spirit can do what only He can do.
Following these steps is neither difficult nor threatening: Find a common interest, pursue in conversation until the Holy Spirit opens a door, share your story, then get out of the way, remembering to pray—it’s that simple!
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