Silence is a safe place. If nothing is said, no one gets hurt, embarrassed, or made a fool. Silence is death. If nothing is said, the name of Jesus remains unheard, the gift of salvation remains unwrapped, and chains remain around the hearts of hopeless strangers.
My father was telling me about a dream he had recently where he was placed on an island with 100 people and a bomb that was soon to be detonated. While everyone scrambled to get off the island and escape their impending death, my dad realized there was no escape. The bomb would blow, and if that didn’t kill them then radiation would soon claim their lives. Immediately my father stood up on a rock and called everyone around him to hear what he had to say. thats when he began to tell the crowd of the salvation feely given to each of us who accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. This dream depicts the reality of life. There is a bomb called death that not one of us will escape. It’s inevitable. So at the end of the day, what’s most important?
My team and I have spent a few days walking around a place called Waterfront [which is like a much larger version of Riverwalk for you Tulsans] doing street evangelism. Sadly, this was my first experience deliberately starting conversations with strangers to share the gospel. But wow did the Lord open my eyes. You begin seeing people in a different light when you step out in faith. You see the pain they’re going through, you see the chains they drag around their feet, you see the weight of disappointment on their shoulders and all at once everything in you wants to approach them and tell them of the freedom and hope the Lord has for them. But Silence stands between you and them and reminds you of all the reasons you shouldn’t walk up to someone you don’t even know. They won’t listen. They’ll think you’re crazy. They won’t accept what you have to say. You’ll embarrass yourself and make everything awkward.
But then something inside you moves and you break the Silence. You ask about the art they’re selling, you ask about the pens they make, you even ask what music they’re listening to. And for some unexplainable reason these people open up and share their struggles, hardships, and doubts with a complete stranger, to the Holy Spirit in me. Then right then and there, in the middle of a mall or sidewalk or market, I get to pray encouragement and peace and joy and love and hope over these people. And it’s not me talking, but the Lord through me. I get front row seats to the untangling of pain and suffering and the installation of hope and comfort. And maybe we’ll even get to high five in heaven some day.
Proverbs 24:11 says, “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.” How else can someone be saved from death than to be handed life? How much I would have to hate someone to keep quiet about the one true way to an eternal life of joy and peace with Christ in Heaven. So here is my promise to join the fight against Silence. Please, please join me.
