Witness? Who, Me??
By Kelly Cilano
No, I don’t know why your aunt who is wonderful has breast cancer, and I don’t know why you’re alive on this earth, for that matter, so please don’t ask me! After all, I’m not a scholar – I can’t tell you why God lets things happen! I really don’t know, and I don’t have a great answer for you, either. I can’t say anything the way I should, and since I don’t have just the right words or one of those fearless personalities… I’ll just be labeled as a Christian who doesn’t really have any answers.
Sound familiar? Too close to the truth?
If witnessing at school is hard, you must remember one thing: witnessing is not about you having all the answers. That’s God’s job. Witnessing is about what God has done in your life, and if you are saved, you are a witness. What’s more, you have something those around you don’t have: salvation. You have access to peace in the middle of the storms of life. Now, whether you use that access or not is a different story, but the truth is, you do have access and your classmates and teachers don’t. What they are using doesn’t work. And, believe me, they know that, too.
Maybe, like Queen Esther, you were born for such a time as this, to touch people for God that no one else may be able to touch… even though it’s not comfortable. Speaking up in class about your beliefs is part of your rights as a student. You have a right to challenge anti-biblical presumptions taught as fact, given that what you bring up is on topic, and you aren’t just doing it to be argumentative. Being argumentative only serves to make you a pain, prevents learning, and gets on most people’s nerves.
If you are looking for honest answers, that is a different story. Bringing up your faith with some facts from Answers in Genesis.org might introduce some lively classroom discussions, as well as some facts that need to be considered. Still, witnessing isn’t about having all the answers, or about being right, smart, or spiritual. It is a command from God, and it is to be obeyed. You are in the circumstances where God has placed you in order to learn from them, to act on them, and when possible, to use them as a witness.
Look at Daniel. It was his prayer life that got him into trouble, so to speak – but in reality, it was that prayer life that spoke the loudest testimony in his time of need. The lion’s den became one of the greatest witnessing tools that people have used over time, and the classroom is no different. Often it is true in our own lives as well: how we handle our daily struggles speaks much louder than all the facts we can muster.
Honestly, the old adage, “actions speak louder than words” rings the truest when our lives are held up in the light of an example under fire. As Jesus knew well, it isn’t the crowds, the shouting, and all the hype. It is all about the consistent, persistent walk that shouts the loudest. It is so easy to measure witnessing expertise by the spotlight of man; but in reality, it’s the quiet, consistent, daily sunrise of the everyday walk in the footsteps of Jesus that speaks the loudest.
I John 4 says it best: “For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”