I recently attended a pastor’s workshop in which the leader—if
I understood him correctly—taught that Christian witnessing is about telling
what God is doing in your life.
Like many others, my life has often been filled with
enormous emotional pain. When I was about six years old my cousin and best
friend was walking behind a horse when he was kicked in the head and died. My
best friend and brother-in-law was crushed in the back of the garbage truck he
was working on. My two younger brothers died suddenly of massive heart attacks.
My father-in-law died of Lou Gehrig's disease.
My mom and dad both died of emphysema
(and other complications) struggling for every breath they could get. My first
grandson died during delivery. The pain of all of these deaths put together
doesn’t even compare with other emotional pain I’ve experienced. I suspect that
if I shared with others that this is how God has worked in my life, they would
say, “You Christians can’t even get drunk to ease the pain! Why would anyone
want that?!”
I suspect that the workshop speaker was talking about
sharing the good things God is doing in our lives, but that can be deceptive. Becoming
a Christian does not mean that life will then be a bed of roses—it may become a
bed (or crown) of thorns! The fact is that God often works through the trials
in our life.
Take St. Paul for example. Imagine Paul telling people how
God had worked in his life: Before he met Jesus, Paul was well-respected and
rising in status faster than many of his contemporaries. After he got saved and
started preaching Jesus, Paul got death threats in Damascus, Jerusalem and
elsewhere. He was run out of town in places like Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Thessalonica and Berea. He was
stoned nearly to death in Lystra, and was imprisoned in Philippi, Caesarea and
Rome.
In Second Corinthians11, Paul summarizes what God was doing
in his life saying that his ministry had resulted in hunger, thirst and
sleepless nights. He says that five times he had been whipped, three times he
had been beaten with rods and once he had been stoned. Before finally being
beheaded he would spend years in Caesarean and Roman confinement—and we’re not
talking modern prisons with weight rooms, basketball courts and TV’s. It was
more like darkness, cold hard floors, and vermin.
Jesus taught
that those who would follow him should count the cost—because it could cost
everything! Those who leave the impression that following Jesus will solve all your
problems are lying to you!
Telling people what you think God is doing in your life is
hardly sharing the Gospel! The Gospel begins with the biblical teaching that “all
have sinned and come short God’s perfect standard.” Our sin has separated us
from God and places us under his terrible wrath. Paradoxically,
however, in God, love and wrath coexist. In his love, God became human in the person of Jesus Christ,
and endured mocking, beating and torture on a cross as a sacrifice to save all
who would turn to him in repentance and faith (i.e. allegiance, loving devotion).
Following Jesus in faith does not always lead to personal
peace and prosperity in this life. In fact, for many people following Jesus
makes life worse—for some, much MUCH worse! But we follow a Lord who endured unbearable
suffering for us. Why would we expect anything different?
Bottom line, being witnesses for Jesus involves talking
about Jesus, not necessarily about what you think God is doing in your life.
