Tag Archives: Faith

Not Just for Sunday School Any More

January 11, 2009

If you follow my professional blog, you’ll know that I did an interesting project with my class this week. We explored comments left at the website 1000 Things That Matter by people around the world, analyzing them to see if there were any patterns or recurring themes. Besides the academic results, I was struck by how the students’ analysis exactly mirrored scriptural principles.

Let me first say that there was no mention of religion, God, or the Bible during our discussion, and the web site had comments from a very broad variety of people. In fact, there was only one comment that overtly mentioned God, and I actually left that one out of the list I gave to my students.

The first group I worked with was second and third graders. I had absolutely no preconceptions about where the discussion would go, but as they discussed their observations, I started to see that there were some themes running through the posts. I was curious if the students would notice them.

As they wrapped up their study, I asked them to name the common themes they saw. I was amazed as they named, in this order:

  • Love
  • Joy
  • Peace

I’m certain that the class had no idea they had just named the first three Fruits of the Spirit.

They also identified “Relationships” as a fourth theme, something which I believe any reader of scripture would agree is an essential part of being a Christian.

A couple of thoughts occur to me as I ponder this. One is how scripture may seem irrelevant or out of date to someone who isn’t familiar with it, yet when they are asked about what matters most to them, they name the things that the Bible also describes as priorities.

But even more than this is how so many people—and I should include myself in this—desire the same fundamental things and work so hard to achieve them in their lives. They just want better relationships, to love and be loved, to enjoy life, to live in peace. All they are missing is the only thing that can make them a reality: a relationship with God. Scripture is very clear that these are not things we are entitled to, and they are not things we will ever accomplish on our own. They are all a result of allowing the Holy Spirit to live in us, work through us, and change us.

I think this can also be an encouragement to those of us who are reluctant to share our own faith with others. Maybe one way to approach it is to start by asking them what matters most to them. Then you can introduce them to the one who can provide it.

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The Pure Simplicity of a Child’s Faith

October 26, 2008

I love to see people in our church get baptized. It lifts my faith to see people making that public commitment to following Christ, and the testimonies they give encourage me and remind me of the beauty of the gift we’ve been given by God.

This is most evident when children are baptized. They have a refreshing way of explaining their decision with simplicity and straightforward innocence that cuts to the truth of God’s love. Today, a child stood before the entire congregation and said, “I’m getting baptized today because I love Jesus and want to be one of his workers.” Wow.

We can take a cue from these children. So many adults when asked to talk about their faith or explain why they are believers tell their whole life story. I’m guilty of this. The journey that I took to get to where I am today is so complex, with so many subtle turns and small decisions, that it takes quite a while to tell, and to me, it’s all relevant and all important. The fact that I’m still living it doesn’t help, because almost every day God does something to impact the direction of my life, adding to the tale.

A pastor friend of mine heard me tell my testimony once and said that if I wanted anyone else to pay any attention to my story, I had to be able to tell it in under a minute. It took me quite a while to pare down the story of how I came to know God to its basics so that I could do that. As much work as it took to get the story down to that brief a telling, I’m beginning to think that should be the long version of the story.

I think everyone needs to have what I’m going to call a Ten-Second Testimony. Boil your entire life story to something you can share in literally ten seconds or less. While that sounds impossibly short, there were a couple of things I noticed during the service about the stories these children told. First, the shortest, simplest statements were the most powerful ones. They touched me in a way that the longer, more detailed testimonies didn’t. And second, I know every one of those kids has troubles and difficulties and has overcome things that, to them, are as challenging as anything I’ve dealt with. But they don’t clutter their faith with all of those things. They love Jesus. Period. And the simplicity of their faith and their stories makes me want to find out more.

So I’ve written my Ten-Second Testimony:

God has been faithful and carried me through my best times and my worst, and I am so grateful that He loves me no matter what.

Is my faith and my journey really that simple? Well, yes and no. There is of course so much behind each part of that statement. But it’s the essence of why I follow Christ, and maybe if I get ten seconds to share my faith with someone else it will lead to a deeper conversation where I can explain the more subtle reasons and the more complicated stories.

I challenge you to write your own Ten-Second Testimony, and I invite you to share it with me in the comments.

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