THE SCENARIO: Agiteant blew their witness the other day. They had not gotten much sleep lately, and were over-worked and tired, and preoccupied with material problems that were sure to cost them a bundle—a bundle they did not have. And then it happened, just like that: An individual to whom they had in past times been presenting Jesus Christ blatantly offended them—and Agiteant fired (yelled) back without thinking (consider Psa 141:3, Pro 13:3); not in cursing…but close enough.
In the outworking of this scenario please consider the following:
1. Agiteant lost their focus. Material burdens and physical stresses had so overwhelmed them that they acted in a manner that they typically would not have. How well do you maintain your witness in those seasons when you are under extended duress? Have you ever stopped to consider how important meditative, quiet prayer, rest, and proper exercise and nutrition are, not only to your health physically in the face of duress, but how the practice of these might benefit the work of Christ by way of their positive influence in attaining a consistent, stalwart witness for Jesus?
2 Jesus Himself is the best biblical precedent when it comes to handling abuse in the face of duress. Consider how He maintained His witness for the Father in His Temptation (Mat 4:1-11), and especially during that difficult final week of His life. He certainly was wearied, suffering, under great duress, etc, both times. What can be learned and practically appropriated from His precedent in this regard? Can you think of least one other biblical precedent here? What can be learned and practically appropriated from it?
3. This brings us to another aspect of this scenario, namely, “fighting evil with evil.” Agiteant knew better, and apparently did not consciously set out to retaliate, but nonetheless, it sure came off as such; it came off as though they were fighting evil with evil, in direct violation of the law of Jesus Christ (Mat 5:38-40). It sure looks “ugly” for the cause of Christ when this happens. Witnessing for Jesus brings with it great responsibility, for the minute one brings the Gospel to a soul, one must then with the utmost conscious concern and effort take care to bear out one’s testimony through one’s speech and conduct. Nothing can derail a witness faster (maybe even to the eternal loss of that beloved soul…) than a thoughtless, stressed-out reaction like Agiteant’s. Have you ever lost your cool (focus) like Agiteant here in the course of a witnessing exercise? How did things turn out—were you able to recover; was Christ’s cause served in the end?
4. We have at times “acted out” a scenario like this one in effort to prepare ourselves for the same. It works great in groups. One pairs off a couple of people; one of them does the witnessing, while the other one’s job is to try to “frazzle” the one doing the witnessing in effort to test their mettle; in effort to test how well they react to the unexpected while maintaining the cause of Christ. If there are more in the group, then it is highly constructive for them to critique the witnessing performance. The exercise can be a lot of fun of course, but once things get more serious, it is amazing how well a simple exercise like this one can prepare one to some degree at least for the reality of witnessing, especially when the exercise is designed around different witnessing motifs, like say, the two people involved may be asked to simulate a witnessing scenario that one might encounter at a bus stop, or in the gym, on a plane, and so on. Perhaps its greatest value lies in the insights it gives oneself regarding one’s reactive feelings and tendencies when put under fire by another person.
5. So much of life is about human interface of one sort or another; we all interact in one way or another, more or less every day. There is never a lack of opportunity it seems for us to witness, either outright by way of speech, or less overtly by way of Christian conduct. But human interface is largely challenging, to say the least—we need God’s help to do it right; indeed, to do it right consistently. How does God help us here? How has He manifestly helped you here—can you recall specific instances when He nudged you to witness for Him, and then stepped in and helped out? His help is a confidence and comfort here for us, amen?
6. Undoubtedly, we all make (painful) mistakes under duress when it comes to witnessing for Jesus (consider Peter, who knew our awesome God firsthand Mat 26:75—what was Peter’s duress?). How could Agiteant recover from their mistake; what would you do in effort to recover? Let us find ways always to recover for the sake of our Savior—in solidarity of spirit with Him as to the preciousness of the ones we are witnessing to for Him.
7. Dear Christian friend, may the Holy Spirit empower you and I with a consistent Christian witness for the cause of our great savior God. A cause that has in view the eternal fellowship of beloved, precious souls with Himself (Salvation). Help us Lord when the going gets tough and we are under duress to maintain your blessed cause.