What am I willing to do for the gospel to be heard? I am willing to do whatever it takes. If it made any sense for me to wear scripture on my face like Tim Tebow, I would. If  millions of people were paying attention to me, I would take advantage of the opportunity to preach Christ. Tim Tebow took a stand. He used his position to further the gospel. Might I applaud him here? Well done Tim!

So what in the world could this possibly have to do with my mission trip? Today I spent a few hours with a friend of mine going over our testimonies for the mission trip. We were asked to get our stories down to 300 words or less. For me, that seemed an impossibility (I am if nothing else, verbose). I enjoy the way words fall together and play upon on each other...the mysterious music of language. I appreciate descriptive adjectives and action packed verbs. To ask me to limit the most important story of my life to 300 words was some sort of blasphemy.

I had worked at it and worked at it...chopping away sentence after sentence...lopping off hunks of personal information. When I was done, only the facts remained. What I did before Christ, followed by how I came to accept Christ and then ultimately who I became in Christ.

As we read to each other it occurred to me that we needed more action words. Earlier this morning during my quiet time I was fixed on the word Shema. Shema is a Hebrew word that means to hear. Many Jewish people recite the Shema prayer two times a day. The prayer states that the people are to "hear" the Lord God. Being who I am (a bit of a weirdo) I looked up the word in Hebrew to discover a riveting truth. Shema not only means to hear, but to hear and then obey! Wow, how many times does Jesus say, " He who has ears, let him hear."...let him hear and obey. The truth is we want to hear at best, but to obey requires sacrifice...to obey is where we pick up our crosses and follow Jesus.

The English language has over 400,00 words, while the Hebrew language is limited to the thousands. Due to the task of describing reality, each word in Hebrew is jam packed with a myriad of meanings. In English we have so many words to choose from that we assume every word in another language has merely one meaning. I began to think about the task of translating my testimony into another language for this trip to Malawi. I wondered if they had a language more similar in its function as Hebrew and if my slimming down my story to actions would change its impact.

It made such a difference! It brought strength and validity to the story somehow. It was like the difference between reading a story in the newspaper filled with facts, and hearing the ponderings of a dreamy philosopher. One is down to earth and tangible, the other is based on intellect and feelings which are more difficult to articulate.

I continue the challenge of retelling my story. God gave each of us a unique testimony. Throughout the years I have shared it in many ways with different types of people in different situations both with and without time constraints. The story is basically the same, it is the audience which changes. I am willing to do whatever it takes to know my own story so well that no matter what happens I will be prepared to share.

I may never have an audience the size of Tim Tebow's, but if I share every where, in every opportunity, I can reach a multitude for Christ. Those who know me know the stories of me sharing Jesus in stores, on customer service calls, in traffic, in my place of employment, and even one time, in the bathroom...we need to be ready. We have been given a command to go and share. We have no way of knowing what kind of soil our seed will fall on...our job is to sow the seed.

"A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear."