Baseball and witnessing

Matthew 5:14 (ESV)

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Sharing your faith with others isn’t always the most popular topic. If you’re like most people, you’re probably not all that excited about sharing your faith. You may feel that if you share your faith people will think you’re stupid. You might be afraid that they might not like you if he finds out you’re a Christian. So you do what many Christians do, you stay quiet about your faith. You don’t speak up when someone challenges what you believe. You know that praying with your friend who’s parents are going through a divorce would really help, but you’re afraid of what your friend might think. The list of excuses we make for not sharing our faith can be pretty long. However, let’s take a look at what baseball can teach us about sharing our faith with others.

I know a guy who is a huge baseball fan. He watches baseball all the time on TV. If he’s traveling, he will try to catch a game in whatever town he’s in, if he can. Baseball is something he’s really excited about. Lately, his favorite team has not been doing really well. They’ve been losing a ton of games, but he still sticks with his team. Every conversation this guy brings up baseball and his favorite team. He talks and talks and talks about it. Why? Because he’s so excited about his team.

My friend is not that weird. We are all like that. When we are really excited about something, we like to talk about it. If we have discovered something new, we tell others. If we find a good deal on something at the mall, we tell others. So why is it that when it comes to something as exciting as finding Jesus do we shut up? Shouldn’t something that has changed our lives, something that affects how we live our lives everyday be something we share with others?

Why is it that we talk about our favorite baseball team with everyone we know, but when it comes to sharing our faith, many times we tell no one. We have something way more exciting than a winning team, we have a winning God. We have a God who loved us, and gave his son so that we could experience life change and a relationship with Him. Why aren’t we filling our Twitter feed with that news?

It’s easy to get afraid to share our faith with others. It’s easier to not say anything so that we don’t look weird to others. However, we are called to be salt and light to our world.

Today’s verse shows us that we are to be showing God to others. We are not to keep God a secret from the people in our lives. Just like when talk about our favorite baseball team to everyone we know, we should be telling everyone we know about God. We should be letting others know that God has changed our lives, and to let them know that He can change theirs too. If God has done something in your life, you should believe that He will do the same for others. So choose to put your fears aside and to step up and tell others about God.

Dear Lord, we pray for boldness to share the good news of Your love to others. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.