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I work on the 23rd floor of a downtown office building. Day after day I see the same faces, and know who gets off at each floor. One day I was late for work, and as I rushed to the elevator, a man I had never seen before held the doors and asked me, “Up or down?” As we rode the elevator, he surprised me by breaking the silence to ask if my final trip was going to be up or down.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, when your life is over, will you be going up to heaven or down to hell?”

“I sure hope it will be up,” I said, while anxiously watching the lights approach number 23.

As the elevator stopped he said, “If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it will be.”

“Of course I do,” I replied. Then, as the doors closed behind me I added, “I go to church every week.”

I didn’t think much about our conversation, and in fact I forgot all about it until a couple weeks later when I was late for work again. This time I was the one in the elevator as he came running to beat the closing doors. Remembering his kindness to me a couple weeks earlier, I held the doors and said, “Up or down?” But instead of getting on the elevator, he stopped just outside the doors.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “Come on, I’m in a hurry.”

“Are you sure this elevator will take me to my office?” he asked.

“Of course it will,” I snapped. “I ride it every day.”

“I know it works, and lots of people ride it, but will it take me where I need to go?”

“Not if you don’t get on it,” I said impatiently.

He finally got on the elevator and as we waited to reach our floors, he said, “You see, going to heaven is a lot like riding this elevator. You can know that it works and watch it go up and down all day, but if you don’t ever get on it, it can’t take you anywhere.”

“Yes, but what does that have to do with going to heaven?” I asked.

“You can go to church every week and do good deeds and say prayers and even believe about Jesus, but if you are depending on those things to get you to heaven you will never get there. You must trust on the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour.”

As the doors opened at my floor he handed me a card with some Bible references on it. “Read these,” he said, “and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

That night when I got home I took out the card he had given me and looked up the verses in my Bible. Tears came to my eyes as I realized that I was a lost sinner in need of salvation, and that Jesus died and rose again to take away my sins. Right there I prayed to God, confessing my sins and trusting Jesus to be my Saviour.

Now I’ll ask you—when your life is over, will it be up or down for you? Have you ever taken the step of faith and trusted Jesus as your Saviour?

Here are some Bible verses for you to consider.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
(Romans 6:23)

Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.” (John 6:47)

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” (Acts 16:31)

“These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13)

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