I once invited a friend, Gavin, to help my pastor and me guide 30 lively teens through an all-night "lock-in" at church. Early in the evening Gavin challenged me to a game of table tennis in the fellowship hall. Our game quickly grew into a heated competition, as a small crowd gathered to watch us battle it out.

With the score tied and only three points to go before the end of the game, Tracy, an eighth-grader, grabbed the ball and tried to play keep-away. My first impulse was irritation. But then a Scripture passage that our group had read that afternoon came streaking across my mind: "Love is patient, love is kind, and it is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked."

I politely asked Tracy to return the ball, and then Gavin and I joked with her until she finally tossed the ball back onto the table. We thanked her and finished the game.

Hours later, after an evangelistic film, we were pleasantly surprised to see Tracy walking down the aisle with a group of six others to receive Christ as Savior. Later that night, when we gathered for testimonies, Tracy told her story: "I grew up in a family where nobody goes to church. I've learned to get attention by making people mad at me. But earlier this evening I saw something different."

Gavin and I looked at each other and raised our eyebrows. "When I stole the ball from those guys," Tracy said, pointing to us, "they didn't get mad at me. They didn't fight back. I saw something different in those guys, and I decided right then that I wanted whatever it was they have."