Over the past few months I have been pondering the word “testimony”. What does it really mean? In court, when you give testimony, you are
retelling your side of the story, honestly, and to the best of your
ability. Dictionary.com states that testimony
is a declaration of a witness, evidence in support of a statement, or an open
declaration as in faith. When one gives
their personal testimony whether in a court of law, in a religious setting, or
somewhere else, I suppose s/he could use the sentence frame, “I believe X, and
the reasons why are A, B, & C.”
In essence, your testimony is your personal story. It’s who are now and how you became who you
are. It’s all of the moments in your
life that have lead you to today. On a
spiritual level, your testimony is what you believe and why you believe it –
the experiences that have lead you to what you believe.
Thinking about my testimony, has lead me to realize that
there are many remarkable things that have happened to me throughout my life,
and sadly, unless you have known me for a very long time, you probably don’t
know much of it. In fact, most of the
people that I spend most of my time with (co-workers, recent/newer friends)
know nothing about my story. And, I’m
not saying this is bad – but I feel as though God is prompting me to reveal a
bit of myself.
So, New Years resolution #1: Begin the year revealing pieces
of my testimony. And what better avenue
to do that in than in cyberspace for all of humanity to critique, right? I pretty much figure that not many people
read my blog (or facebook posts for that matter) so I am entering in to a
fairly safe audience. However, that being
stated, let me remind you that revealing oneself to others (especially if you
are a rock solid introvert) is pretty terrifying. I don’t want to get political. I’m not into arguing theology via the World
Wide Web. And I hate drama.
I simply want to tell some stories about my life. Worst case scenario: you will hate them - in
which case you can stop reading at any moment.
Best case scenario: you will love them and maybe even find a glimmer of
inspiration to tell your own story to someone – or even to me! I would love that.
I think maybe, we all have remarkable stories to tell, but
for whatever reason, we don’t. We keep
them inside of ourselves, like secrets. Why is that? I’m guessing fear of criticism is a big
factor. So, I’m taking a leap of faith
here…be kind…please.
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