The Courage to Talk

This morning I was chatting to someone who had been through a rebellious phase in his teens. He had been involved with churches for some time but then went to pubs and deliberately appeared in front of churchgoers very drunk.

Not surprisingly, he was met with disapproval and received no encouragement to come back to church. I was curious about the man’s story. From time to time you do meet people who know what the Christian life is about but who become antagonistic towards Christians.

“What would it have taken for you to change your mind and amend your life?” I asked my friend. “Just for someone to talk to me,” he replied. “But nobody spoke to me.”

His testimony gave me pause for thought. Christians are expected to show concern and compassion for those who are struggling, but in this case nobody spoke.

To me this is understandable. When you speak out you draw attention to yourself and problems can result. The wiser course of action could be to adopt a low profile and keep quiet. Sometimes I think I live by the code of “Discretion is the better part of valour”. But in this instance a gentle, friendly word could have made all the difference.

Anyway, God had His own agenda, and that man is now a loyal and tireless worker for Christ and His church. By God’s sovereign hand he came through regardless. We should not beat ourselves up over whether someone was saved or lost for want of a word from us. If God wants a man or woman to come through for Him, He will bring them through. Yet we can have – or miss – the privilege of playing a unique part in that process.

My thoughts turn to Psalm 116 and verse 10. This is a difficult verse to interpret, but in the traditional versions it reads:

“I believed, therefore I spoke.”

Believing and speaking go together. Certainly for the apostle Paul believing will inevitably mean speaking out:

“Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 4:13-15 ESV).

Sometimes believers in persecuted countries feel they have to keep mum because if they spoke out, even to close family, they would get both themselves and others into dire trouble. Yet often they are so excited by finding their Saviour that they simply cannot help but declare their Christian experience!

Our silences can be damaging. At the very least they may cause outsiders to think that really we are no different from the rest. One person speaking out can make all the difference … but maybe that person is unusual and special, someone who has experienced God speaking to him or her with particular force.

It may only be your turn once in a lifetime – but may God anoint you for that one special occasion where you speak out and it makes a difference.