My Story Isn't Boring

When I was in college I had the opportunity to travel on the recruiting team for my school. Every summer, I travelled with a team of 4 or 5 other college students to youth camps. Our goal was to connect to the students and try and get them to go to Baptist Bible College. Traveling to 8 weeks of camp all over the country each summer was one of the coolest experiences. I had the chance to see God work in mighty ways in the lives of teenagers. Each week we would see teens give their hearts to God. One of the things we were able to do was to share our stories of how we met Jesus and what brought us to Bible College.

I always thought to myself, “my testimony is boring and isn’t as powerful as other testimonies”. I am a pastor’s kid, who grew up in church and got saved when I was five. I’ve never smoked, drank and I didn’t even cuss. My parents where supportive and I’ve never went without a meal or a place to sleep. Growing up in church, I’ve heard many testimonies. It seemed to me like the people with the greatest testimonies were the people who had the greatest sin or a terrible upbringing. These made for the greatest stories of how God saved them and their life changed dramatically.

One year I travelled with a girl who had one of those “really powerful” testimonies. It was so cool to see how God had saved her and how on fire she was for the Lord. I remember standing in the front of the auditorium one night for the invitation and a teenage girl came up to me. I was excited to pray with her. She asked me if I was the the one who..then she proceeded to describe my friend’s testimony. She said she really connected with my story. I told her that wasn’t me and took her over to my friend. I felt defeated. My story wasn’t powerful. That’s when God showed me that my story wasn’t powerful or not powerful based on me and what I have been through and done. My story and everyone’s story, for that matter, is powerful based on who God is and what He has done. My story is not even about me. It’s about Him! I needed to get over myself and I needed to stop thinking my story is less powerful than others. The same powerful God who sent His son, Jesus to this world, to live, die and rise again…conquered death and the grave. Now we can have life and life abundantly because of what Jesus did. Our story is not powerful because of us our our circumstance. Our story is powerful, because God is Powerful!