What Kind of Witness Are You?
Dear children, let us not love with words or speech
but with actions and in truth. – 1 John 3:18
He means well. He does. He is a man of God, determined
to help others. He sees needs and he speaks. He’ll help. He’ll organize a
group. It’ll get done.
Except it never gets done. He’s moved on to something
else, to someone else’s need. It wasn’t intentional. It’s just that there are
so many people who need help and there really isn’t enough time or workers to
do it all.
So he makes promises he’s not going to keep. Again. He’s
a good man. He has good intentions. But his witness, well, it’s not so great.
He would be appalled at that statement. He reads and
studies his Bible. He prays. He attends church faithfully. But to those just
outside of his orbit, the ones who are in need, the ones who hear his promises
and then wait expectantly for help that won’t come, well, they don’t think so
highly of him or his God.
Ah. There you have it. God. This man proclaims his
faith and good intentions with his mouth but he doesn’t follow through with his
actions. And that nullifies his witness for God. If they can’t depend on a man
of God to do what he says he will do, then maybe they can’t depend on God to do
what He says either.
You and I both know that God is trustworthy. He always
keeps His promises. God never, ever lets us down. That’s not the case with humans.
We let people down all the time. We are forever making promises we can’t keep
because we want to make people happy. Well, maybe it’s because we want to make
life easier for ourselves.
There is a sweet woman at our church who has just the
brightest smile. She has good intentions too. She also has a reputation. Oh,
don’t believe anything she tells you, others say. She always volunteers but she
never actually shows up, they confide. Oh, she’s not dependable. Yeah. I found
that out.
There is no need to volunteer for something when you
aren’t going to do it. Think ahead. Is the timing inconvenient? Are you
juggling too many things already? Is it just not something you would enjoy?
Whatever the reason, it’s okay. Just don’t volunteer. Learn to say nothing or
to say no. Really. It’s more important to be honest upfront than to make a promise
you aren’t going to keep.
Of course, it’s easy to point fingers. We are quick to
spot the hypocrisy in others. We climb onto our lofty perch and point fingers
at those below. It’s way harder to look in the mirror and ask ourselves: What have I
promised that I didn’t do? What have I committed to do and then decided I just
didn’t have time? What good intentions have I pushed aside for something more
urgent or for someone I see regularly?
We are all witnesses for Christ. All of us. As the
saying goes, you may be the only Bible some people ever read. So what are they
reading when they see you?
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