Should I do it now? Is now the right moment to share my faith? No . . . I’m so bad at explaining things. She’d probably take offense. Or worse, she’d scoff.

Have those thoughts ever flashed through your head during that suspended moment after an unchurched friend vents about some mess in her life?

Perhaps, like me, you’ve chosen to murmur words that steer clear of anything too theological, afraid that you lack the wisdom and eloquence to do your faith justice.

The apostle Paul wants to convince us otherwise. The philosophers of his time delighted in clever oratory. Paul, however, spoke the simple message of the cross: “For Christ [sent me] to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Corinthians 1:17).

Paul knew it wasn’t his cunning choice of words that would bring anyone to faith. It wasn’t his words at all. It was the work of the Spirit in the message of the cross.

It’s a simple message, but it’s packed with the power to quell fear, anger, and grief. It’s the message that Jesus is the Son of God. He knows the sin that crouches in every heart, wounding every life. And so he chose to be born as a human baby, to live perfectly in our place, to pay for our sins with his life, to rise again and rule on our behalf.

Now is the time. Fill that silence. Speak of Christ’s cross.

It’s simply powerful.