So What’s Your Story?

Inspired by the testimony of one of the stories you’ll read in this issue, I decided to let the psalms guide my prayer time one morning recently. 

I landed on Psalm 19, which says in part: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands. Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge. There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard. Their message has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world” (Psalm 19:1-4, CSB).

There’s so much good stuff there—much more than I’ve got space to lay out here. But notice two things:

1. There is a constant, 24/7/365 testimony being proclaimed by creation. Like a rambling, loquacious child full of wonder, the creation just can’t stop testifying of God’s greatness—and amen to that!

2. Creation does this without the benefit of voice. Not that it can’t—Jesus says if we don’t testify, the rocks will cry out. But I’ve yet to hear a sedimentary singing soprano. Its mere presence testifies to God’s greatness.

Humans are unique in countless ways, one of them being that we do have a voice with which we can sing the praises of our Mighty Creator and God. Psalm 105 encourages us to not only worship the Lord by singing praises to him, but to speak of all his wonders and make his deeds known among the peoples (v.1-2). 

But I didn’t come here to preach—I came here to testify, and to encourage you to start doing the same.

You’re going to start frequently hearing us ask you, dear reader: “What’s your story?” It’s a simple-but-powerful question. If Jesus has saved you, you’ve got a story. I don’t care if you’re a dog catcher, a lawyer, a teacher, a college student, a stay-at-home mom … if you’re in Christ and he is in you, you’ve got a story to tell. Like every starry night, you’ve got a testimony to proclaim.

More often than not, I run into followers of Jesus who feel like there’s really nothing special to tell about their lives. Consequently, our churches are often devoid of testimony. We’re pretty good at proclaiming the testimony of Christ, but the other side of that coin is testifying about what he is doing in our lives. In doing so, we proclaim our God to be living and active, not passive and disinterested.

Here’s mine, in a nutshell: I didn’t grow up in church but chased a girl into First Baptist Church of Tool in junior high. While there, I went through the motions of getting saved and baptized, but my relationship with Jesus was about as deep as it was with that girl (who dumped me almost as soon as I started attending). Years later, in my early 20s, the challenges of life were crushing me and I came to realize that only Jesus could lift the burden. He so changed my life that I eventually walked away from a successful career in the newspaper business to serve him first as a missions and evangelism pastor at FBC Vidor in Southeast Texas, and then as lead pastor of a small church in Central Oregon.

And now the Lord has me back home to Texas, giving me the opportunity to seek and share the testimonies of what he is doing in the lives and congregations of our people across the state. 

So friend, let me ask you—what’s your story?