And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 1 Corinthians 2:1 (NIV)
Human Wisdom – Part 4
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3
In 1 Cor 2:1-5, Paul says,
“And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”
Paul had an incredible experience on a road one day. He was called Saul back then, and he used to travel around persecuting those who followed Jesus. But what happened that day on the road to Damascus changed his life forever. More than a decade later, he returned to the cities and towns he had persecuted not to bring further judgement, but faith. His life was a testimony to change and hope. Hope that how you started in life didn’t have to be how you finished. His life was a testimony, but he didn’t push and peddle it with eloquence, persuasion, insistence and human wisdom, he just continued letting his life tell the story. Yes, he preached, he taught, he wrote letters… But on those cold nights in prison, or at sea on a boat, or when he was bitten by snakes and betrayed by his country, it was his testimony, what he could testify to, that kept his faith alive.
Your testimony is for you.
When you’re sitting with someone whose child just died, or who is need of healing, or who just lost their job; when you hear on the news about paedophile rings, school shootings, boats full to the brim of refugees who lose their lives to the oceans tantrums and the precarious nature of the vessels that carry them, when you saw that picture on the internet of the little Syrian boy who washed ashore in Egypt and then later saw his father sobbing on TV – when you stare these moments and people full in the face and feel your legs go out from under you, your blood running thin and your head swims with conflict as you wonder why in heaven and on earth this is happening – your testimony is for you. It’s to keep your hope alive. It’s to keep you steady. It’s to keep you focused. It’s to keep you listening.
These are not the moments you whip out your testimony and bash someone over the head with it, but rather you let what you know to be true steady you. You know there is hope. You know there is peace. You know that through time pain eases and joy is possible. And in these moments, you let your life do the talking rather than your mouth.
It can be tempting to fill in the silence and the unknown with your own story; to give advice and tell people what they can and/or should do to move forward. But what is really needed is your presence; your willingness to go through the hard stuff and look beyond what someone has done and where they are at and see why they are there in the first place. After all, our lives testify to the power of having someone stand beside us, don't they?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”
Go to Part 5 – True Story »
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