“Now we are on vacation, honey,” the Iranian pastor said to his wife. “Please, don’t do anything that will make the police question us. Let’s not ruin this time together.”
The pastor’s wife was a walking witness for Jesus Christ. She had handed out thousands of Bibles to Muslims in Iran and over five thousand copies of the JESUS film.
At the seaside city where they were vacationing, they went to the mall. They separated to look for the different things they wanted, and when the pastor returned, he found his wife telling a large group of people in the store about Jesus Christ.
Looking around for secret police, he quickly ushered his wife out of the store and into their car. “Honey, we are on vacation. I thought we weren’t going to do that here.”
She looked him in the eye. “There are many people back in that store that don’t know Jesus,” she said seriously. “If they die and go to hell, you are responsible.”
The chastened pastor turned the car around and drove back to the mall. Quickly his wife went back inside, handing out copies of Scripture and the JESUS film.
One lady came forward. “Oh, thank you so much,” she said tearfully. “For five years I have been praying for a Bible, and now the Lord has answered my prayer.”
Vacations make great memories. Walks on the beach. Shopping in the city. Reading by the fire. Yet as much as we need a break from our everyday routine, we are never really entitled to take a break from our witness. In fact, our witness ought to be so much a part of our personalities that we can’t separate the two. The apostle Paul never went anywhere as a “tourist.” For people like the pastor’s wife in this story, it’s not something they can turn off and on like a light switch. Their bold witness is simply who they are, and it comes out naturally in season and out of season. The unnatural thing is a compartmentalized faith—it comes across as fake. Instead, let your faith grow freely in your everyday experiences.
If you enjoyed this devotion, it is from the book Extreme Devotion, which you may easily purchase at The Voice of the Martyrs bookstore. Please click here.
