As Christians, I feel like we do the same thing. We read, we pray, and we discuss our faith with other believers so that we will be prepared and able to be our best on the biggest stage. For Christians, our premiere venue is really any chance we get to share our story, or witness, with people that don’t know Christ.
That is a term that I heard thrown around a ton when I first became a Christian. People were always talking about the opportunities they had to witness to people or that they wanted to improve their ability to witness. I used to spend a lot of time wondering what they meant by that. I felt like I must be doing something wrong if I was never entering into these magical witnessing sessions that led people to Christ.
Was there some kind of trigger or indicator that meant “it is now time to witness to this person”? Were there code words that I would learn as I became a more experienced Christian? When you are talking to someone, is there like a switch that you turn on, and then you turn your hat around backwards to get in “The Witness Zone”? The way many Christians talk about this makes it sound as though there is only one interaction or conversation that ultimately leads people to Christ. Is that how we are supposed to share our faith? If so, I need to start wearing a hat more often.
If we are spending all of our time working toward “The Witness Zone,” we are missing so many opportunities to plant seeds with people. If we are constantly waiting for that one moment to lead people to Jesus, we are missing so many chances to show them what God’s love is all about. We can and should share our faith with people no matter how close they are to being ready for The Witness Zone. In fact, if we are not taking time to share our faith with them in the meantime, they may never be ready to accept Christ.
As Christians, our mission and our goal is to help people come closer to God and become better disciples. Just as everyone else with a goal, we often tend to focus on the end of the game. We seek out the victories and constantly think about what it will be like to be in The Witness Zone.
However, this can cause us to overlook the work that we should be doing in the meantime. We forget about the day to day activities and opportunities that ultimately lead to that end goal. So please do not get it in your mind that you only get one chance to help a person come closer to God. Just think how successful we would all be if we could have the focus, determination, and passion all the time that we have when we are in The Witness Zone. How much more effective would our ministries be? How many more victories would we have?