...and now, an eyewitness account...

It's not something we hear very often in our church services or our classes but I think we would benefit from hearing it. Most of us are not quick to share this with the person beside us on the plane or the waiter or the guy in the office next to ours but they might benefit from it too. It's the story of our lives. It's the telling of how God is active in our daily lives. It's the way that the Holy Spirit has comforted and clarified. It's the way that God has been faithful to His weak, sinful, unreliable creation.

Watch the news. Good reporters find an eyewitness to interview so that we can hear a personal, human account of the news event. They may explain to us why a train wrecked and that's important. What touches us is the story of the person who lived through the train wreck. The smells, the sounds, the sights, the fear, the pain, the relief at being rescued... all that adds up to much, much more than the physics of a train falling off the tracks.

When a person is willing to stand up and say, "This is what God has done for me..." it's very compelling. It's far more powerful a presentation than reading the stories of God's work in the lives of people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago.

I believe that this kind of presentation does a lot for us, even those of us who already believe in God.

This kind of openness shows us that those people who sit through church services with us are real people with feelings and emotions and failures and divine redemptions. Remember David, who slept with his neighbor's wife and had the man killed? He was called a man after God's own heart. This kind of testimony reminds us that we are all sinners and that God loves us all the same. No more pretending that we are as pretty and clean as we look all dressed up in our Sunday best.

This kind of testimony also reminds us that Jesus isn't some antiquated voodoo that only worked back in the day before cell phones, laptops and wireless broadband. God is working in our lives today. Not just watching to see how we do and so He can make a call on whether we get into heaven or not... but actually moving the hearts and minds of those around us.

Let's stop acting as if were clean all along. Let's stop acting as if we "partnered" with God to make the world a better place. Let's be honest with ourselves... our best behavior is like filthy rags on God's scale of cleanliness and we spend plenty of time being less than our very best. Let's start telling the world how God saved us, not just ancient, historical figures, but us from the clutches of sin. Let's talk about how in our broken lives, God's power is made clear. Let's talk about how God lifts us up when we humble ourselves. Let's talk about how God healed and restored us. Let's talk about the pain, the fear, the smells, the sights, the sounds... Let's talk about a Holy Trinity that is very much alive and active in our world.