Everyone has a testimony whether you know it or not cause a testimony is really just a story of your life and how you got to be the person you are today. For some people it is difficult to share their testimony because of how vulnerable you have to be in order to share it, whereas some may find it easy to share. Personally, I'm at a place where I believe that I've been put through a lot for the purpose of sharing how I was able to get through life which makes it easy for me to share. That being said, I still find it hard to share with close friends of mine because I see them so often.
This past Thursday I was given the opportunity to share my testimony with two other great guys for a group of friends that meets officially once a week. And as I was thinking about testimonies all week I started wondering if testimony was one of those christian-ese words that we use that non-Christians don't quite understand. So for my non-Christian readers and those who are Christian but aren't sure what testimonies really are here you go:
In it's basic form, a testimony is really the story of your life. However people don't really have time to sit down and listen to you describe every detail about your life that you can remember so testimonies are more of a condensed story of your life that describes major factors that have influenced you into being the person you are today. For Christian's, this includes when you accepted Jesus into your life and when that actually effected you (for me I accepted Jesus when I was around 3 cause I was afraid of going into hell, but it wasn't under grade 8 when I went on a mission's trip to Vancouver that I realized what being a Christian really looked like and that was when I fully made the decision).
Some Christians make the mistake of describing testimonies as a story of all the horrible things you have had to go through and how you have overcome those obstacles or still are. The problem with this thinking is that there are many people who have not had to go through things in their lives but that doesn't mean they don't have a testimony or that theirs isn't as powerful. I find that someone who has the testimony that is basically "I accepted Jesus into my heart, I've had some self-esteem problems growing up (or other issue that people can face) but I have been able to get through that with God" is very inspirational to me and I look up to those people because they had the strength to stay with God throughout their lives. Similarly, people who's testimony are similar to mine where they've gone through a lot of problems and addictions I respect because they have experienced a lot of life and chose to turn back to God to help them get through it.
Testimonies (as you may have guessed) requires you to really know who you are now and what you were like before and how you were able to change from your before to now. This requires self-reflection and introspection as to who are you right now.
I would encourage everyone (Christian and non-Christian) to share their testimony with at least one person that you trust because this helps you to be real with someone else instead of continuing to wear a mask to hide who you are everyday. But also, the more you share it and think about your testimony, the more aware you are about yourself which is always beneficial. So who are you going to share your testimony with?
Ps: sorry for not writing this sooner, I've been busy with always doing something so I haven't had the time to getting around to writing. Hopefully I will be better this week
#LifeOfRyan
