My thoughts on faith, family, friends, and fiction! 

A couple of weeks ago we were visiting a church where they were finishing their youth’s D-Now event.  The service began with a baptism…which is always a great way to kick off a service.  As the pastor began to unwrap the testimony of this young man, I was moved.  Note:  baptisms always make me cry with joy; after all, this is someone who has come forward out of the darkness and into Jesus’ saving light.  However, this particular testimony moved me beyond just tears…it moved me into a new spiritual zip code. 

The young man who was being baptized had actually accepted Christ into his life over a year prior to his baptism.  Why the wait?  His father was in the military and was deployed.  The young man wanted to wait for his father’s return so that he could share in his son’s joy.   That alone touched my heart…but wait, there is more.

Upon his return, the father noticed a change in his son.  This changed moved him, and caused him to question his standing with Christ.  While he was out driving one day, he pulled to the side of the road, and, in tears, he accepted Christ into his heart.  The ripple effect of the son’s conversion is a testimony itself, and as powerful and moving as that testimony is, there is more.

The father didn’t immediately tell anyone of his conversion.  He said to himself, “If I have really accepted Christ in my life, I shouldn’t need to tell them.  They should see it.”

There is more to the story.  The ripples in this wave of salvation began with a couple opening their home to the youth for an event, which is where the son was saved.  And at the time of this post, the ripples extended to the sister being saved as well.  I could talk a lot about how one person yielding to the Spirit affects so many.   However, that is not the point.

For me, the power in that story came from the father’s words.  The wordless testimony that changed so many. 

As a woman who loves words, this was moving…not just moving as in I cried, but moving as in it picked me up from where I spiritually lived and moved me to another place.  A place that had me questioning whether, absent from my constant blathering, could you discern my love of Christ.  Could you tell that He is my very breath? 

I have been sitting with this story burning in my heart.  I wanted to type and publish the post that afternoon.  Nevertheless, I waited.  I wanted the words to become a part of me, not just a part of my blog.  I wanted them to flow from my heart, my hands, and my life before they flowed onto the screen. 

The Wordless Testimony Test…that is what I am calling it. 

The test that proves whether you were just emotionally moved, or spiritually moved.  What would happen if Christians around the world had the father’s mentality?  If, before babbling on and on about something (but not backing it up with action), they ran the test.  If it is real, they will see it; otherwise, it is just words.