What does it truly mean to share your faith? For the longest time, I always felt the pressure and indication of a dramatic story that contrasts the darkness and light of your past. The shock and awe of how terrible we used to be and how the blindness of such times left us destitute of purpose. Nevertheless, sharing my faith isn’t, in other words, simply my testimony. Walking beside my teammates and watching them from afar has allowed me to see what sharing your faith is. What I have come to believe is that it is something we are wondrously brought into by God’s grace over our lives.
When I think of my teammates, they are not the same people that left with me in September. Personalities step in and each one according to their knack of disciple, humor, quirks, and perspectives. However, each one carries with them the distinct trait of passionate growth. In that, I would word it as “faith shared” rather than “sharing faith.” The beauty is that I have partaken with them in their own journeys of belief. Whether that be bouts of questions, lust, depression, insecurity, or simply complacency, I have seen the tests. I have seen my brothers walk through trials with the Lord and there, in moments of peril or triumph, choose Him. It is not the story they are telling, but the one they are showcasing.
My sister is an artist. This past summer I was able to spend time in with her spinning ceramics. The process, if anything, is one of precision and care. The clay is thrown, beaten,spun, molded, fired, and then put on display. Likewise, I have seen my brothers struggle to find their faith in the trials that settle into their minds and hearts. Their trust in that God is going to do what He has declared over them as sons is sharing their faith. It is their obedience and their heart during these times that demand for there to be an answer about God. His character and standing with man as so much to let them suffer. But, we do not suffer alone and take our cares within for consolation.
My brothers have taken it to God and invited me in. What I have learned about sharing my faith from them is that it is less about what they say and so much more about what they do.
