Sermon Illustrations
Pulitzer-Prize Winner Annie Dillard on Witnessing
If you've been a Christian awhile you know that we're supposed to share our faith. But that's where things get dicey. In her book Teaching a Stone to Talk, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Annie Dillard, wrote about when she lived in rural Virginia and went to meet a neighbor for the first time. The woman came to the screen door and was polite but nervous. Dillard writes:
She did not let me go; she was worried about something else. She worked her hands. I waited on the other side of the screen door until she came out with it: "Do you know the Lord as your personal savior?" My heart went out to her. No wonder she had been so nervous. She must have to ask this of everyone, absolutely everyone, she meets. That is Christian witness. … I wanted to make her as happy as possible, reward her courage, and run.
We sympathize with that woman, don't we? She embarrasses us a little, but we sympathize. Because Jesus told us that his disciples fish for people, and that his disciples are to be salt and light in the world. We have to shine if we follow Christ. We have to be salt. But how?