You Are A Proof of God!

The gym was loud with the sounds of screaming children, youth and their parents. The sounds of bouncing balls ricocheted off of the cylinder brick walls and the metal light fixtures that hung on the ceiling as eight coloured nerf balls were whipped around the room during a fast paced game of dodgeball; and the heavy beat of Manic Drive protruded from the hanging speakers giving family night at youth-group an even spread of noise. After an hour and a quarter and three running games and one relay race later, my Keynote presentation shining on the wall and my audience of 30 sat in front of me. I was ready to give the lesson. 

Over the course of the last couple of months or so I have been bringing my youth through a course called Christian Crazy Claims. We learned about what Christians believe, what the world has to say about those beliefs and how to show the unbelieving world that the claims of Christianity is not so crazy after all. However that night I took a segue, from our course to teach something different. So what did I do instead? Hold your horses! 

I explained to my audience that when one often thinks of the word apologetics, it is the relationship between subjects like logic, history, philosophy, the sciences and Christian theology that get touched on and rightfully so. However one thing that seems to get ignored a lot is the importance of subjective experience. There are times when people don’t need to hear *again* the proofs for the existence of God, and *more* evidences of creation; although these are important! Instead sometimes people need proofs of the workings of God; sometimes people need to know *how* God is working, now, in the present, not just *that* he works in the abstract. How can one do that? Here is a platform that is grounded in objectivity so to offer the proofs for the working of God - you! Your testimony! It is true that your testimony is not objective but subjective as it is dealing with the subject, you; but your experiences are fact, objectively true. It is true that many skeptical people will try to reinterpret your experiences, but they cannot deny that those experiences happened. And this is what I did on family night; I offered my life as a proof for the working of God - I gave my testimony. 

My Testimony:   

I was at a Christian based summer resort when I came to a saving faith in Jesus; I was 5 years old. I knew the differences between sin and being an imperfect person and I knew that my sinful nature had consequences and those consequences was keeping me separate from God. As such after heard the Gospel message, I walked up to the front of the chapel during children’s church and asked Jesus to come into my life. However there was one thing that I didn’t understand and that was the nature of God. God is rich in mercy (cf. Ephesians 1:4) and I didn’t understand what it means that God finishes what he starts (cf. Phil 1:6). That night I was mean to my sister and as such I thought Jesus moved out of my heart; so for the next 8 days of chapel I asked Jesus to come into my life, because for those 7 days I continued to be a mean brother.   

Throughout my grade school and junior high school years I was a loner; my only friends that I had in grade eight for example, were my sisters sixth grade friends and they were really only friendly acquaintances. My only friend was Jesus. However things changed in high school where I became more tenacious about my faith, even to the point of annoying. I earned the nicknames Jesus freak and God Boy; and I wore them like they were badges of honour.   

However one thing to remember is salvation doesn’t mean sinless. In the latter years of high school I fell into a bad crowd. I picked up smoking and everything took a very quick spiral downward. One thing that I had going against me, however was, me; all throughout my life I had a rebellious streak that ultimately led to me being on the streets, panhandling for money to buy drugs and booze.  

However throughout all of this God was with me. God was with me during night of drunken stupors and he waited for me while I did other stupid things. However there is a time when God says “enough!”. One day I was panhandling and I asked this old man for change for coffee (of course it was for drugs). He said that he would buy me a coffee instead of giving me the money; so he took me to a nearby coffee shop and within an hour my life had taken a 180 degree change - that morning I woke up in my bed aiming to panhandle for money for drugs; that night I went to a different bed where with a job; what job? I was the youth leader for the drop-in centre that he ran. A few months goes by; there were successes of sobriety and drunken failures; and then it came time for me to go get more help - I went to a longterm live-in treatment centre where I stayed there for 3 years. Then after this place I went to college. Now, about 14 years later, with 10 years of sobriety under my belt I am writing this down for you.  

The end. 

One of the things I told my youth, when it comes to testimonies is that everyone has one! I instructed them to never to believe the lie that even though they don’t have a story like mine that they don’t have one. This applies to everyone. Another thing I taught was a three step format for telling one’s testimony: 

1. Have a *therefore*. When telling your testimony always try to leave your audience with something that can be applied to their life - your “therefore, this is what i have to offer you today by my life” message. 
2. Keep your plots relevant to your therefore. Everyone has various mini-plots in their life. However all of them are a part of a bigger story which has an unique ‘therefore’ conclusion. 
3. Keep it Christ centred. When giving your testimony it can be very tempting to keep it self-centered, as it is your life story; but if keep in mind why are you telling your story? Why am I telling you my story, my testimony; what am I testifying to? ANSWER: How God has worked and is working in my life. 

In sum, you may not be an expert in the sciences, or philosophy, or history or in academia at all, but you are an expert in you and your experiences. Moreover, there is a common ground between academic studies and your experiences: they all testify to the glory of God. When someone asks you to give them a reason for your hope in Jesus resurrection for example (cf. 1 Peter 3:15), you can allude to what you know about any of these academic disciplines. In sum a Christian should always be testifying for Christ and this can be done via academics and you; both facets are needed as they perform different functions.