It's Time They Found Out

A friend was telling me the other day about her situation at work. She's one of two professing Christians at her workplace, and has been trying to be a witness to her faith. She's paid close attention to the example she gives of living a Christian life. Recently, the other known Christian, an ordained minister, was found to have been embezzling money. And my friend found herself having to defend the faith in light of this other person's actions.

"How can she do that?" they ask her. "She's a minister! Aren't you supposed to be better than that?"

Now my friend feels like all the work she's put into her reputation is shot. She's built a certain level of trust with her coworkers that has now been damaged by her fellow Christian's indiscretion. And she's on the defensive, not sure whether to rationalize this minister's behavior, or say she's must not really be a Christian, or what.


I found myself thinking, if our witness is based on a reputation of goodness and honesty, it sure doesn't take much to tear it down. Isn't that the knock on Christians, in this country anyway? That we talk like we're better than everyone else, but in the end we do all the same stuff? We lie, we cheat. We cheat on our spouses. And the worst part is, it's true! We're still sinners, and you don't have to look too closely at our lives to see it. We may not do the really nasty stuff quite as much as non-Christians, and we're good at hiding the rest, but not one of us can stand up to close scrutiny. We tell lies to make us look better. We curse at people who cut us off in traffic. We're prideful and vain. We gossip. We condemn. We discriminate. If the witness of our faith is that we live better lives, I have to say it just doesn't hold water.

So what is our witness? If I'm in a community, at work or in my neighborhood or at school, and I want to be a witness to the power of Jesus Christ that lives in me, what do I do? I don't think it's enough just to be good and nice and hope people notice. Let's face it, there are better and nicer people than me all over the place, and many of them aren't believers. And for me, I don't think it's being confrontational with the Gospel. You know, yelling at passersby from the street corner, knocking on doors and asking people if they're going to heaven or hell. It's just not me, and it doesn't fit what I see in Scripture. I'm not saying God doesn't call some people to do that, or that it's never effective, I just don't think it's me.

I think the answer is somewhere around loving people, intentionally. Not letting relationships be superficial. It's so easy for me to pleasant and shallow, to say hello and make smalltalk, never to give offense, to be ready to respond honestly about my faith but never to press the issue. And I don't think that's enough. I think I need to make time to spend with my neighbors, time to allow conversations to progress past the weather and the local football team. I've been spending so much time with church people that I haven't developed meaningful relationships with anybody else, and if I'm going to have a real witness to the world, that has to change.

I've spoken with my wife about it, and she feels the same way. We have some new neighbors moving in, and it's a great excuse to throw a party. We're going to build a fire, roast some oysters and really get to know these people we've been living next to. They know I'm in seminary, but I don't think they know I love them. It's time they found out.