Failure to witness

About 2 years ago, I was out with some colleagues at work, and during the evening I began talking about my new found faith in God. During the conversation, one of my colleagues said something along the lines of “I don’t believe in all that God and Jesus stuff”.

I was hoping to convince them, but the conversation eventually moved on and I had little interaction with that person for over a year.

I’ve been working on a project which went live just before Christmas. I needed to hand the finished project over to the company’s managed services team, and it just so happened that my handover was to this particular colleague.

Due to Covid, the handover was done online, through Microsoft Teams (a bit like Zoom video conferencing but must better). At the end of the handover, I had the opportunity to discuss again with this person the gospel, and perhaps articulate it more thoughtfully this time around.

I didn’t. It was easier for me to put it off till another day.

Christmas came and went and on the first day back I received the terrible news that this person was killed in an accident.

None of us knows what day will be our last day. Likewise, when we don’t share the gospel with someone, we don’t know if we are the last chance that person has at hearing the news that will lead them to salvation in Christ.

I don’t know if this person has had a change of heart during the time I had not spoke with them. I hope for their sake, they had.

We all have a responsiblity to reach the lost. I know it is difficult, but the fear is completely irrational.

Hearing the news of their death had a big impact on me, but through it I have found a greater boldness in sharing my faith and being a witness for Christ. It is unfortunate that it took the death of someone I could have witnessed to to wake me up from this irrational fear.

The fear is still there, but it has greatly diminished.