Brin from Houston, California writes this,

I want to be a bold witness for Christ before the men I work with who are all unbelievers.

My heart is breaking for them and I am so frustrated at how hesitant I am.

I don't speak when I should speak.

My plans to make opportunities come to nothing and when I do speak I look back dissatisfied

and wonder if I said anything we're saying or hearing.

I second-guess myself and hesitate myself out of an opportunity.

I leave work most days feeling like a failure and doing nothing for the sake of winning souls.

I feel like I don't love those men like I ought to love them and I don't love God like I ought to love him.

I can't really think how to state my question other than what would your advice be to me?

Pastor John, what would you say to Brin?

Well, here's just one simple suggestion.

I don't feel like an authority in this.

I don't consider myself to be a gifted evangelist like some friends of mine,

some pastors who are so wonderfully adept.

I just spent time recently with one of those friends and I watched him

manage conversations in a most natural loving way and I just

I was filled with envy.

I hope godly envy, oh lord, I want to be more like this but here's

what I have thought and tried over the years.

One of the things that makes speaking of Christ often in casual work related environments

is that those environments seem so unsuited at the moment for the seriousness of what we need

...