Out In the Open

“People listened to me expectantly, waiting in silence for my counsel. After I had spoken, they spoke no more; my words fell gently on their ears. They waited for me as for showers and drank in my words as the spring rain. When I smiled at them, they scarcely believed it; the light of my face was precious to them. I chose the way for them and sat as their chief; I dwelt as a king among his troops; I was like one who comforts mourners.” – Job 29:21-25.

“I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret.” – John 18:20.

A man in England disappeared the day after being questioned about the rape of an eighty-six-year-old woman. The police never gave up searching for him, making periodic visits to his home. On one of those visits, eight years later, they found him—hiding in a six-by-two-foot hole under the floorboards of his living room. He had taken refuge there the day he disappeared to avoid further questioning and arrest. He never saw daylight for the first two years of his self-imposed imprisonment. Then he felt it was safe to come out occasionally. Constantly terrified at the thought of arrest, he couldn’t leave his wife and children. The children had no idea their father was there, sleeping in that miserable hole every night.

Christians do not hide in fear lest they be exposed. They welcome investigation and questions. Refusing to hide behind a privacy clause, we open all scriptural teaching and our personal life for study. The Christian experience is public domain, not a private preserve.

Courtesy of Speaker’s Sourcebook of New Illustrations by Virgil Hurley © 1995 by Word, Incorporated.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by permission. All rights reserved.