Go Tell

Last night in my writer's group, I was asked to give the devotion. While this was written toward writers, it applies to all of us. As a Christ followers, we're all charged to tell our stories—to share our testimonies of God's love.

I’m not an orderly writer with a detailed outline of how my story will flow. I’m a pantser.

While I do have an idea where I want the story to go—a target destination and key points I want to address—the storyline always takes on a life of its own. Characters appear and say things I’d never thought about. Things unfold that I didn’t see coming. And sometimes the Lord will use my own words to reveal things to me, impress a point, encourage me, and even take me to the woodshed.

That happened recently.

My novel is about four childhood friends, now adults, navigating lives that haven’t followed their script. In this particular scene, three of the characters are present and talking about how the Lord had radically broken strongholds in one character’s life.

That’s when another character references a term that—up until a few years ago at writer’s conference—I’d never heard of. On one of the powerpoint slides, the speaker referenced Kintsugi: the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold.

I hadn’t thought much about the term—until my character brought it up.

And I began to think about how God has taken the broken parts of my life—often parts I didn’t even realize were broken—and bound all the pieces back together—and filled—is filling the cracks with Himself. He’s poured Himself into my fears, losses, and disappointments, and sealed them with His goodness—His glorious, radiant gold. And those precious flaws? They’re my transformation story.

And tt’s our transformation story we’re called to tell…through our instructional non-fiction writings, our fictional characters and storylines, our heartfelt poetry, our transparent essays, and our truth-telling Bible studies.

Repeatedly in Scripture, we’re told to testify—to share our testimony—our stories.

In Mark 5:19, Jesus told the demon-possessed man that He’d healed to: “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.”

In Psalm 66:16, the Psalmist calls: Come and hear, all who fear God and I will tell of what He has done for my soul.

David proclaims in Psalm 26:7 all of God’s wonders.

Psalm 71:18 points out that even in the later seasons of life —even when we are old and gray, that we are to declare God’s power and mighty acts to the next generation.

We’re challenged in Psalm 119:46, to our speak of our testimonies before kings.

And my personal charge—is Isaiah 52:7: How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. I am to bring the good news of hope to the weary, downcast, discouraged.

With every word I write—and every word I speak—it is my prayer that all the Gold that fills my old fractures will make me like a gilded mirror—and that I will reflect the holiness, goodness and faithfulness of Jesus.

May it be so for all of us.