60 Second Testimony

60 Second Testimony

I attend a Bible study on Thursday nights. We are currently working our way through a book on discipleship, focusing on sharing our faith; in common church vernacular - witnessing. For me, "witnessing," or as I call it, sharing my faith, is more a way of life than it is an intentional action. I share things about many relationships I have in my life. I never walk up to someone I do not know and say, "I would like to introduce you to my grandchildren!" Some do this. I'm not one of them.

In that same line of thought, nearly everyone I know are aware of my grandchildren. Many know their names, ages, and latest exploits. It's what you do when you are in relationship with someone. You share your heart ... all of it.

However, there may be an opportunity which may arise where you feel compelled to share what God has done in your life. You may see someone struggling to find their way through a difficult stretch of living. In those moments it would help to have something prepared to "break the ice" in order to get a conversation started. Our text for the current study suggests having a "60 Second Testimony." By having a concise opener memorized for easy recall, it takes some of the pressure off. It's simply sharing something about Someone you are in relationship with in order to help a fellow human cope with circumstances.

Below is what I've settled on for my 60 Second Testimony. It only took 65 years to come up with this. I weeded out a lot of jargon and confusing Christianese to get to this place. Take a look:

I spent much of my life confused about who God is. I never wondered if there was a God. I could see in nature there had to be a Creator. I just could not get my head around who He was by what I heard said about Him by those who claimed to be His children.

It wasn’t until I came to the end of myself that I cried out to Him, and from that experience began learning who He really is. Through this process I came to know Him, and the life-transformation He offered through all that Jesus did to provide a way back into fellowship with God, the Creator, the Father, the One who loves me most.

Now I spend my life trying to get others to see the God that I have come to know, so they, too, can have a relationship with Him. He stands ready to hear our cry and will move heaven and earth if necessary to bring you back home.

I would love to hear you comments. I won't argue with you. You may think it's the worst thing ever. You may think it's the best thing ever. Either way, I would not disagree with you. It's simply my way of verbalizing what I have come to know about God up to this point. But, I'm always trying to learn more. If you feel you have something which can help me see more of God, please share it with me.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Blessings!

Knave, Nave, Know, Now

Knave, Nave, Know, Now: English is hard. Communication is harder. So much of our communication is non-verbal: pitch, volume, intonation, emphasis, inflection, facial tics, posture, gestures, eye contact, eye movement, ... We do all of these things subconsciously when we speak, yet none of this is communicated when we write. We've tried to adapt to the digital age by capitalizing, emojis, acronyms, bold, italics, underline, ... However, you cannot completely emulate human behavior, hence, communication, by words alone. If it's important, make time to have a face to face conversation. It will mean more to the hearer, whether it's good news or bad.

Details

After an evening conversation with my wife about a webinar she is attending this week, the next morning I began observing my process of getting ready for the day. The focus of the webinar is regarding communication, and the detail to which we actually communicate. Here are three levels of communication that I came up with that illustrates why there is so much MIS-communication in the world.

Conversation I

Person A: What did you do this morning?

Person B: I got dressed and went to work.


Conversation II

Person A: What did you do this morning?

Person B: I got out of bed, took a shower, fixed my hair, brushed my teeth, dressed, and drove my car to the office.


Conversation III

Person A: What did you do this morning?

Person B: The alarm went off at 6:30 am CDT. I got out of bed, went to the bathroom where I showered. I used Dove soap, Suave Strawberry shampoo, and dried off with a white terrycloth towel. I put Bed Head Max Hold gel in my hair, brushed my teeth with Crest Whitening toothpaste and Oral B toothbrush, rinsed by mouth with water, and dried my face with a white terrycloth hand towel. I dried the water in my ears with a Q-Tip swab.

I then proceeded to my closet where I dressed (I'll skip a few details), when downstairs, gathered my necessary items for work, got in the car, cranked it, and drove down Chisholm Road, Cox Creek Parkway, Florence Blvd., and arrived at the office.


In all three of these examples Person A could truthfully say, "I talked to Person B about their morning." Depending on the need for information, Conversation I might be totally sufficient. However, if Person A was asked to recreate the morning routine of Person B, Conversation III would certainly be more beneficial.

What is the point of all of this? It illustrates how misleading communication can be when it is not qualified. Never stop short of fully understanding someone before saying, "I see." If it's important, the details matter.