i have heard, many times, something along these lines:
“your life is your best witness”
it is simply not true.
your words are your best witness.
your life, and the way you live, will prove out what’s really in your heart, but no one gets “saved” without hearing — and sitting there not sinning, but not loving and not sharing that love is NOT witnessing.
remember what “witness” means: it means you are testifying that jesus is alive.
you are a witness of his resurrection, and its power to transform your heart.
so get out there and testify!
that is witnessing.
on that note:
be honest about it all.
it is amazing how being open and honest about my failings, doubts, and the disappointment i have with myself at times, but god’s willingness to love me, mess and all, opens WAY more doors to meaningful conversation about kingdom things than simply “living a life that witnesses”.
some random waitress at a bar, if i’m not smoking, is not going to be impressed with my stand for christ.
some random waitress at a bar may well have her heart opened up to christ just a bit more if i am honest about my occasional cravings for cigarettes (still, after SO many years of not smoking), but how i am thankful i serve a god who has grace enough for even me.
living a “good”, but quiet life in front of the “sinners” at your school or workplace is simply NOT a witness — odds are it may even be destructive.
they probably know you are a christian, unless you are simply living a “dual life” — and they may well think you simply don’t care to mix with the likes of “them”.
(they are probably right, if you are like a lot of christians i know )
but that’s the point: we should care, and we should love, and we should be out there, in the thick of humanity, doing what they do, with them.
if they’re going to a movie, or a game, or the the club (all within limits — there’s a time and place to do and not to do), we’d better be there, being thier friends, so that when they get themselves into trouble, we can the ones with a real hope for them to cling to.
if the only time you talk to your co-workers or school mates is to tell them to please stop using the lord’s name in vain…
well, that’s not going to get them to fall in love with jesus.