Growth

Sharing God’s Story

Sharing what God has done in our lives is such a privilege. Although it seems that we get the opportunity to do this more often with believers (or perhaps we are just more willing to take those opportunities), sometimes we also get to share with unbelievers. Traditionally, this has been called our “testimony.” Just like witnesses in a court trial, His children get to attest to the work of God and how this has led to a radically-transformed life.

The challenge with sharing our testimony is that if we are not careful it can sound like “we” are expending a lot of the effort. For example, coming to repentance – a recognition that we have enacted wrong against a holy God, seeking forgiveness for that sin, and turning from it – is often talked about in terms of what “we” did. We realized that we had sinned. We acknowledged our need for a Savior. We sought His forgiveness.

And while I realize the ease of talking in such parlance, Scripture indicates that God is the One directing that experience. Romans 2:4 says that God’s kindness leads to repentance; 2 Corinthians 7:10 indicates that godly grief can accomplish the same thing. In either case – God is the proponent. It is His character that prompts us to seek Him and to recognize that we have committed wrong against Him. Not only is He the One extending forgiveness, He is leading us towards it.

It’s easy to think that our testimony is primarily about us – after all we think it’s “our” story. But in reality – our testimony should be primarily about God – Who He is and the work that He has accomplished. There is nothing better that we can attest to; there is no better story to share.

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Hope

At The Center

There was an old television commercial featuring an owl that asked, “How many lick does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop?” It was a catchphrase that became part of the national conscience. I distinctly remember getting my Tootsie Roll pop after my dad’s softball game and trying to count how many licks it took until I struck the center. If I had thought about it for any length of time I would hopefully have realized that it was a unimportant question. After all, why does it matter how long it takes to get to the center? Yet I soldiered on, trying to answer the owl’s query.

Perhaps one of the reasons that this commercial hit a cultural note is because we are all fascinated by that which is central. We associate centrality with importance. Looking at our solar system as an example, we know that everything else revolves around the center. Unfortunately, despite this knowledge, most of us tend to think that the solar system actually revolves around us.  Our conversation is peppered with personal pronouns as we talk about “I”, “me”, and “my.” Seemingly the greatest tragedies on the planet are those that are effecting our daily lives. When we grumble against God, it’s because things aren’t going according to our plans. Our personal history consumes are dialogue, yet it isn’t our story which is of central importance.

As one author reminds us:

History is to be understood as the patient wrestling of God with a stupid, deluded, and rebellious people—stupid and rebellious precisely because they insist on seeing themselves as the center of the story.

When Satan  fell and when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden it was because they wanted to be the most important. They wanted to assume the position that was rightly God’s. And so it is with us.  We think that we are the center, when it fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth.  History isn’t going to be an aggregate of our stories, but it’s going to be about the story that matters – the story of God’s redemptive work. 

Because despite our arrogance, God loved us enough to send His Son as a babe to die on the Cross and conquer death, so that those who repent and put their faith in Him may have an eternal relationship with Him. For those that know Him, this is the best part of our story. This is what should be central to our lives.

So when people ask us how we are doing, maybe we should talk less about what’s going on with us, and more about how He is at work. Maybe we shouldn’t focus on the trials of this world, but the triumph we have in Him. May we not have to “look for an opportunity” to share the Gospel because we are constantly talking about the work of the Gospel in our lives. May our focus be on that which is truly central – the story of Jesus Christ.

How do you keep Christ central during the holiday season? How about during the rest of the year?

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