“We have too much stuff!” I fumed as I stumbled past a pile of stuff in the garage.
This wasn’t the first time I had hit my limit on the things we had accumulated. I had been trying to “purge” the house for several years now. I felt like Eustace in C. S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eustace was unsuccessful in removing his dragon skin. Only Aslan could do it. For Eustace, the skin symbolized his sin that only Christ could remove. For me, the clinging dragon skin represents all the trivial possessions and projects that consume my time and energy. I have been pruning things out of my life and home with a goal to simplify my life; it’s now time to let Jesus dig deeper than I had been able to do on my own.
So, what do my struggles to downsize my possessions and projects have to do with witnessing?
The Top Four Hindrances for Christian Workers in Sharing Their Faith
The top four hindrances that keep Christian workers from sharing their faith are exactly in reverse order from Christians in general (See The Top Four Hindrances to Sharing Your Faith). They are:
- Busyness
- Not knowing nonbelievers
- Lack of know-how
- Fear
This was a revelation for me! Busyness is definitely my number one hindrance. Specifically, I am often too busy with possessions and projects to give people a little droplet of my time that can mean an ocean of eternity for them!
Busyness
In the parable of the sower, Jesus explains that the seed sown among thorns symbolized “the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things.” What was the result of sowing seed among thorns? The thorns choked the plant, “making it unfruitful.”
Some very good questions to ponder from this parable are:
- Am I caught up in the concerns of this life? And in desires for more things?
- Am I deceived by what I own? Is something taking the place of God in my life?
- Am I unfruitful because of what I own? Or because of how much I own?
- Am I willing to let Jesus help me “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” so I can more easily run the race God has given me? (See Hebrews 12: 1 – 3)
As Eustace explained after his experience with Aslan: “Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt . . .”
I want to be free to serve, not entangled by so many things. To go deeper may be painful in some respects, but I’m ready. It’s not worth holding on to things if they’re hindering me in my availability, fruitfulness, and usefulness.
Which of these four hindrances is preventing you from sharing your faith? See the notes for help in the other three areas.
NOTES:
- I learned of these four hindrances several years ago. I’m sorry I don’t have a reference to credit the original author or researcher. The first post in this series is The Top Four Hindrances to Sharing Your Faith.
- Posts about the other hindrances:
- More thoughts on busyness.
- This post is part of The Sower, encouragement on MikeandSus.org to help you share your faith.
Mike and Sus Schmitt 
Sus, I really like this post. I am dealing with the collected clutter of my house that is partly because we brought two mothers to live with us and did not require that they get rid of everything to do that. I am responsible for a lot of the clutter too and I really want to clean it out and be free. I have been given permission to concentrate on that during June and I look forward to new freedom in all of ministry. Thanks for sharing this.
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Anne, Thanks for dropping in. I’ll pray for you to be successful this month.
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