Every week after the sermon at church, we split up into English-speaking and Hungarian-speaking groups to talk about a particular question that sometimes relates to the teaching. This week the discussion prompt was something like, “Share a passage of scripture that has impacted your worldview for better or worse.” People shared stories of grief, encouragement and challenge. Some people did not even use scripture, but instead referred to ideas from impactful musical lyrics or compelling stories from philosophic literature.
This is testimony!
The definition of the testimony I am talking about is:
“The public recounting of a religious conversion or experience.”
I love how this can be the story of a moment of realization, an experience from two minutes ago, or an ongoing story as long as a lifetime!
It was exciting to hear about things that people personally (or actually?) care about. To hear about how people have encountered worldview change instead of simply weighing in on any particular “hot topic”.
Personal stories have weight.
Telling people a list of your beliefs is stale and distant in comparison to sharing stories about why you think or see the way you do.
Sharing beliefs in generalized labels and dualisms can give the teller a sense of clarity and confidence, but I have found that this is also a fairly sure way to invite misunderstanding. More often than not, using words that have implied meaning to communicate something as personal as worldview can lead to hurt feelings. Especially if there is a difference of opinion! This frequently causes a defensive response, rather than a listening ear. Walls grow up in between the two communicators, and are left with their own rushing thoughts rather than the opportunity to connect, learn, give and take.
Our lives are full of stories that we have the gift to be able to share. We have stories that illustrate the epitome of a particular worldview, and stories that counteract another. The world is full of exceptions. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we were energized by a personal experience that expanded our worldviews, instead of prone to discredit it because it is outside of the confines of our experience? Wouldn’t it be great if we could be free to celebrate the complexity of a true experience? Sharing stories is like a pseudo way to experience life though others. This true sharing glorifies God through the sharer and the shared with. Truth is so freeing. It dances around as it takes different forms, moving from word, to action, idea to experience.
It is a tragedy to believe or tell a lie that suffocates reality.
Dishonesty and falsity create veiled eyes that see through distorted lenses, or take a once ever-expanding heart, and over time make it less and less malleable until it is stilled.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” - John 1:14
We can experience God through grace and truth! Truth is good and bad, and God is good, and we don’t have to name bad, good or good, bad, because truth does not have to always be happy! Praise God. Jesus on the Cross is the most deeply powerful display of God’s Love, and it is covered in death and sin. But, the beauty and the love, the goodness we always look for is found in redemption and self-sacrificial love.
Jesus shares complicated, life giving, counter-culture stories. He uses other people’s stories and shares it as a way to pass along the gift of truth. These stories render what is right by showing us love in action.
With all of this, I want to add that we are not saved by right knowing or practice, but by grace.
Nothing we do or strive for makes us any more or less in need of God’s overflowing grace.
We don’t have to dance, but we get to! I think God wants us to dance with him, and each other. Love dances. I’d like to reference 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 to talk about love, because it’s relevant even outside of wedding ceremonies.
It is patient, kind, it does not envy, boast, and is not proud. It does not dishonor, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps NO record of wrongs! What?!
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth!
It always protects, ALWAYS TRUSTS, always HOPES, ALWAYS PERSEVERES!
This passage is so convicting every time I read it. The kind of love that is described here can be seen as so irrational, so inefficient in our eyes, and yet it is a display of God’s Love. Praise God that these words are true, and we have a list that describes Love!
I think it is critical to examine how “right”, “truth”, and “fact” are not always the same. I think about it like this: “Right-ness” is “love” and “truth” together, while “truth” only holds the potential to let love live in it. We see “love” in “right (right-doing) truth”; while “wrong (wrong doing) truth (true experiences)” is absent or distorted from “love”. “Wrong-ness” is either falsity, or a true experience that does not display love.
Truth and fact:
It is true that my sweater is tan.
It is true that I am hungry for dinner.
It is true that they said that to me.
It is right for me to love them.
It is true that I wronged them.
It is wrong for me to reciprocate wrongdoing because that is not out of love.
Focusing on doing the right thing is not all it’s cracked up to be. I guarantee we’ll do wrong even when we’re trying not to. We’re bad at doing stuff right. Sometimes these become good stories or teachable moments. God doesn’t care about us doing stuff right as much as he wants to love us and let that love overflow out of us.
Praise God for loving us despite our failed efforts.
Share in the dance of God’s love by telling someone a true story!