“Let your light so shine before
all men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is
heaven.” – Matt 5.16
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about letting our ministry
flow out of our being. It’s easy to get
caught up in trying to do things for Jesus to prove a point to people, to prove
to them that we’re Christians or something else equally ridiculous. There’s nothing to prove. If we have to prove to people that we’re
Christians, then maybe we should think about what we’re even reflecting in the
first place.
Now I’m not talking about it becoming a necessity that
people identify “us” with those who go to church services every Sunday, read
our Bibles, and stand on the street corners praying for the corrupt cities of
America and comparing all of the corruption to their own holiness. Those are Pharisees and our churches have
done a good enough job in the past in raising those up. Thank God that the younger generation (and
older) is learning that they have a voice and they don’t have to conform to
that hallow-type of religiosity, “form without power”.
But there’s still something else that I have a problem with:
it’s thinking that we don’t have to open our mouths when we’re out in the real world and talk about Jesus. I’m not talking about evangelism per-say,
more like witness, which some of you
might argue is the same thing. I think
that evangelism is more intentional than witness. Being a witness comes out of your everyday
life; it flows out of who you are. And maybe it’s just perspective and the way
you look at it, but that’s the way I’m looking at it for the time being – so work
with me.
I’ve said before that I suck at evangelism, because I do, so
I’m going to embrace this “being a witness” concept by merely being the son of
God that I know how to be. And I know
that Saint Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the gospel at all times; if
necessary, use words” but I just don’t think we can use that as an excuse
anymore. I was reading this sermon
yesterday by a brilliant man named Elton Trueblood on the necessity of
witness. He said something in there that
hit home with me. It struck a chord in
my flesh that said you’ve been doing this. So like any good person, instead of trying to
create excuses for myself, I’m going to embrace the conviction and make a
change in my life. Here’s what Trueblood
said:
A common expression
is, “I don’t speak to others about Christ; I just let my life speak.” The more such a position is analyzed, the
more arrogant it appears to be. It
represents, in fact, not humility, but the acme of self-righteousness. Whose life is so good that his mere example,
alone, is a sufficient witness? It is
precisely because our lives are not good enough that we must also have the
courage to witness by word. If our
doctrine is not better than our lives, our lives will soon become worse than
they are now.
I realize there’s a battle rising from this. It’s necessary for us to use words and/or
actions to reflect Christ in our lives, but I think a lot of us use one as an
excuse to not do another. What about
those who speak of Christ but their life resonates blatant hypocrisy? I had a friend who told me the other day he
saw a priest walk by a homeless man who was trying to talk to him on the
street. I think I’ve read about that
somewhere before (like the Bible). But
then there are those people out there, like myself at times, who do things and
people have no idea why. I’ll give a
hungry man a plate of food or I might even hug an orphan, but I never tell them
that it’s from Jesus, that Jesus wants to feed them or touch them. And frankly, I’ve seen them left standing
there, wondering why the hell I fed them or gave them a hug. They didn’t do anything to deserve it. Our
actions open the doors to speak of Christ’s love. Shoot – I could have spoken on the grace of
God or something. Or love. That’s a good one.
Trueblood also says, “It is not our religion that we, as Christians, are required to share. It is Christ’s. The moment we try to hold our faith in such a
way that we keep it to ourselves, and make no effort to influence other people
who might be liberated by it, we are showing that we have a complete
misunderstanding of the situation.”
Ouch. Those are tough words to
swallow, eh?
So my challenge for you: go love on somebody and tell them
why (actions preceding words). Or if you
would rather, tell them why you’re about to love on them (words preceding
action). But just go do it. Be a witness.
Stop hiding your faith behind your brittle wall of insecurity and
thinking you have something to prove.
Your faith, which should be faith like Christ’s, has already been
proven. You just need to go live it out
like it’s no big deal and pull others into it.
Easier said than done, I know, but don’t use that as an
excuse.
Christians are full of too many excuses.
