Being present and bearing witness

The loud honking all the way down the street was not that unusual, but when I heard the angry, threatening string of obscenities erupting from the driver, I quickly beckoned for our girls to get back into the house. They had been waiting for me to get my sneakers on so we could take our usual mid-day walk. 

Angry outbursts are not unusual in our city or on our narrow block, so congested with cars, cares, and houses crowded with lives spent in proximity but rarely connecting. 

It has been over three years since this city became our home, and living here, I have had to learn the difference between anger, aggression, and actual violence. It is an angry city, bursting with the rage of generational trauma that has been treated with bandaids and temporary fixes. And, it is a city desperate for the good news of Christ’s redeeming love.

Often in our city, anger is expressed with volume; a loud explosion of emotion that is quickly forgotten. However, on this day, anger was taking physical action. The honking driver who had burst from his car screaming profanity pounced upon one of the women who lives across the street. 

My husband, who had been working in his study, sprang out the door the moment he saw our neighbor being assaulted. Exercising caution,  he yelled into the house asking if our neighbors needed help. The assailant responded by turning around to scream at my husband, which drew his attention away from the woman he was attacking. 

It was a tense moment. I stood waiting on the porch with my phone in hand. The people of our city often do not respond positively to the involvement of law enforcement, so I didn’t yet make that call. But I stood ready and waiting, bearing witness to the scene that was unfolding. 

The man continued screaming, but he looked around wildly, quickly realizing that others were witnessing his attack. He eventually got into his car and drove away, perhaps fearing that we had called the police. 

Moments like these have redefined my understanding of what it means to bear witness, of having a ministry of presence, of honoring the image of God in each human being. 

As Christians, we are often reminded of the importance of sharing the Gospel and speaking the good news of Christ to the people around us. This is a good and worthy reminder. Yet for those of us immersed in Christian ministry, in some ways it can become almost convenient to only converse about the Gospel while remaining comfortably detached from the lives of our neighbors who have expressed zero interest in Gospel conversation.

In the Bible we see Jesus entering into the broken realities of this world. Christ left heaven for us and clothed Himself in frail, human skin. But He didn’t stop there. 

Jesus stepped into lives, not just with spiritual conversations, but with Himself.

In every encounter in which He offered healing or salvation, He first offered His presence. He gave witness to the image of God in each human being, without neglecting to also acknowledge suffering and sin.

Jesus stepped into lives, not just with spiritual conversations, but with Himself. Christ bore witness to the woman caught in adultery. He honored her as an image bearer by neither dismissing nor ignoring sin, but instead offering grace and mercy. On a busy day already filled with demands, Jesus stopped to give time, attention, and compassion to the woman in a crowd who had desperately reached out for healing. Christ engaged the sick and the destitute, those who were outcast and overlooked, the despised and rejected.  

Jesus lived fully present and refused to disengage into an emotional or physical bubble of safety. 

This was the path of the cross. 

 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. - 1 Peter 2:24

And this is also the path of those who follow Christ. 

Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’- Matthew 16:24-25

Jess Proudfoot is an urban missionary in New Bedford, MA.  She is part of the church planting team and also serves as the Director of Women’s Ministries at Grace Harbor Church in New Bedford.