Boring Testimonies

Let’s Not Rob Yahweh of His Glory

As a kid, I was always fascinated by what I used to call ‘blockbuster testimonies.’ You know what I’m talking about? The kind of testimonies, when you hear them, it’s like you’re watching a movie. There was a pastor that once shared his with me—how he ran one of the biggest gangs in his city prior to coming to Christ. The day he got saved, he witnessed the gospel to his gang and they all, too, were saved … even the girl he had slept with the previous night. 

Being a PK (pastor’s kid), I was always so envious of those stories. I believed that God loved me enough to die for my sins but I felt like God saved them from even more things than He saved me from. Compared to them, my testimony seemed typical and boring. At one point, I even thought about rebelling just a little bit and coming back to the faith, so I, too, would have a good story to tell. I know I can’t be the only one that has ever thought this.

A contributing factor to this sentiment is our understanding of sin—or, should I say, our lack thereof. Just because God did not save me from the big sins like murder or drugs doesn't mean that I didn’t have any sins that were worthy of being saved from. They weren’t showy or obvious to others, but they still mattered to God! 

But since we only care about the “big” sins (air quotes because all sin is big to God), we are often ignorant of the effect “little” sins have on our lives. One of the little sins the Lord saved me from was denial, which is essentially lying to yourself. I had built up walls of lies that didn’t hurt anyone but were distorting my reality and prevented me from being honest with God. When He revealed this to me, I confessed it. (The Greek word for ‘confess’ is homologeō, which means to ...

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