What If I Don’t Have a Dramatic Testimony!?

We sure love an exciting conversion story. We may be able to bicker about the existence of God or the Bible’s validity all day, but it’s hard to counter a dramatic story of deliverance and newly discovered freedom. A powerful testimony cuts right to the heart of the Gospel.

But I don’t have an exciting conversion story?

There are a lot of people whose stories are about becoming Christians as children through parents, Sunday school teachers, or youth programs. They didn’t have to overcome obstacles, sins, or addictions.

Many Christians wish their tale was full of more sensational episodes and juicier bits. I shared my ideas for this post on Facebook and one friend told me, “I actually made up my testimony once. I felt inferior for having a boring story.”

Your testimony is not a handicap

Sometimes God does sensational things.

In the ninth chapter of Acts, a murderous Pharisee named Saul is on his way to Damascus to persecute some Christians. God knocks him to the ground, blinding him. This Pharisee becomes a Christian and ends up writing a majority of the New Testament. We know him as the apostle Paul.

Stories like this energize us, but they’re not the only stories.

Consider how Paul describes Timothy’s faith:

“I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you.—2 Tim. 1:51

If you asked Timothy about his testimony, he probably would have shrugged. His story wasn’t a huge, dramatic event . . . he was a child raised in a faithful family. And the church desperately needs those stories, too.

The church needs drama and faithfulness

The church’s job is to introduce people to Jesus, and equip people how to follow him. This means that we need both kinds of stories. We need thrilling stories of lives transformed and we need to see the outcome of faithful lives.

The healthier our churches, the more these sorts of stories will be in balance. Today’s dramatic conversion story will become tomorrow’s testimony of families who have faithfully followed Jesus. Faithful believers then introduce others to Jesus.

It should be a naturally occurring, organic cycle.

The story you tell, and the story you write

Don’t be self-conscious about meeting and following Jesus as a child. What feels like a lackluster story to you, is an actual testimony to someone else who was faithful. Someone cared enough to model and share Jesus with you as a kid—that’s important.

The church needs to experience the everyday reminder that obedience matters. This makes your story so important.

Besides, your biography doesn’t end when you get saved. It’s only the beginning. If the most dramatic story you have to tell about your faith is how you discovered it, you need to get busy.

We should be living so courageously that we have tons of stories about how Jesus came through for us. There’s plenty of room for every one of is to have a powerful and dramatic tale about how God saved or directed us.

So, tell your story with pride, and follow Christ with reckless abandon. You might not have a dramatic conversion story to tell, but you just may be essential to someone else’s.

The post What If I Don’t Have a Dramatic Testimony!? appeared first on Jayson D. Bradley.