Column: Root canal extracts witnessing revelation

By DR. MARK ROSS/Columnist

Slumped in the waiting room chair, I dreaded the receptionist calling my name. Actually, I was hoping and praying she would not call my name, that somehow I had the wrong day or the wrong place, that the whole thing was a bad dream. I was there for a root canal. A root canal is a dental procedure used to salvage what remains of dead or dying teeth, or to extract information. Concerning discomfort, it falls somewhere between a beheading and having a hot needle poked in your eye.
As I silently prayed for the rapture, the outside door opened and a man entered. He was a truck driver who had stopped in Marion to have a troubling tooth pulled. I immediately offered to give him my appointment. Sometimes my Christian kindness even surprises me. However, he could not work out payment arrangements, so turned to leave. The truck driver paused at the door and pressed something into my hand. Before I could look carefully at the document he gave me, the receptionist called my name. Somewhere “a bell tolled.”
Four days later as I pulled myself from the dental chair, I looked at the small book my new friend had given me. On the front cover, there was a picture of an attractive woman. The title was “Everything Man Has Learned About Women.”
The booklet was 20 pages long, but when I opened it, every page was blank. The joke was on me! I should have seen it coming when I read the author’s name, Dr. Albert Zilch, Ph.D.
However, the booklet was more than a joke. On the back cover, there was a message. In short, the message was men know nothing about women or themselves and, therefore, sin and, therefore, are going to hell. That was followed by an evangelical plug. I had been “tracted.”
For some people, tracts are an effective way to get their message out to others. It is easier than a conversation and that nasty business of looking people in the eye and listening to them. Questions and concerns can be so “time consuming.”
In Greek, the word for witness is “martys.” We also derive our word martyr from it. In the New Testament, a witness is a martyr and a martyr is a witness. In other words, when a person dies for their faith, their death becomes their witness.
Over the years like most things, witnessing has become a lot easier, though not necessarily more effective. You can understand the change. One can hand out thousands of tracts but can only be a martyr once. Not that I am not making a case for going back to the old way, dying for my faith sounds a lot worse than a root canal.
I do believe that thinking of witnessing as dying is helpful. To share something as powerful and precious as our faith should cost us something besides ink and paper. When we share our faith, we share our lives. It may not kill us, but at least we ought to feel it.
While I am no model when it comes to martyrdom or witnessing, I am thinking of writing a tract titled “What People Know About Witnessing.” I am not sure what I will put on the inside, but I may ask Dr. Zilch to help me.

Dr. Mark Ross is the pastor of Marion Baptist Church. To learn more about MBC, visit http://www.marionbaptistchurchva.com/