I can remember the days of going to revivals or of hearing people stand up in church and tell radical conversion stories. They would speak of how they had gone from being an alcoholic or a drug addict living in the worst of situations to following Jesus. I would be moved by the stories of the most lost, the most hurting, and the most sinful people being changed and saved by Jesus. And then I would almost feel bad about my testimony. Growing up in church and being saved at eight doesn’t exactly make for an exciting story. I’m not alone in feeling this either. So why we have we been taught and trained that our testimonies are only worth telling if we came from the worst of places? Even if they didn’t tell us that, that’s what we believed, but why?

Well, I think we got the idea that Jesus and His power is revealed in how He changes our lives once we know Him and His salvation – which is absolutely true. That’s not the problem. The problem is believing that if I grew up in church and was saved when I was young, Jesus didn’t really change my life. There wasn’t a lot to change (or so we think). If Jesus didn’t really change me all that much other than saving my soul from eternal hell, then what’s there to tell? Like I said, it’s not that exciting.

First of all, there is something fundamentally wrong with this thinking. The purpose of our testimony is not to prove that we’ve been radically changed – that we’re a “good” person now compared to before. The change is only a result of it. The point of our testimony is to prove that Jesus can, in fact, save our immortal souls from eternity in hell – a punishment we deserve. What Jesus does to us after that proves that it’s real and that it is true. The alcoholic is not compelled to put down the bottle because of religion or laws. He’s compelled to put down the bottle because of what Jesus did for Him by saving Him from that sin. This is an important distinction to make. Many in America know who Jesus is and even what He did, yet they remain unchanged. A genuine, permanent change can only come from the saving power of Christ and the spiritual rebirth He offers. This doesn't come from head knowledge, it comes from a genuine relationship. It’s called sanctification, and it can only happen once we’ve come to a saving knowledge of Him. This is true for anyone that has been truly saved.

Secondly, we shouldn’t assume that Jesus didn’t have a lot of changing to do in our lives. Whether you know it or not, Jesus is constantly at work inside of you once you’ve been saved. In Philippians its says, “I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” It didn’t seem like there was much to change when I was eight, but, looking back, I now see that He has been at work in my life in more ways than I ever imagined. And I’m still a work in progress. That work will continue until the day I die or He returns. So I may not have been “rock bottom” when Jesus saved me, but I was a long way from perfection and still am.

Once I realized all this, I figured out that my testimony was pretty cool. Once we've encountered the cross, we all have a story worth telling. My story, while not elaborate or radical by the world’s standards, proves that even normal, everyday people need to be saved too. It proves that even people who go to church need to be saved. It doesn’t matter who we are or what we try to do to make it into heaven, we can’t on our own. The only way is Jesus and His blood shed for us on the cross. He is the only way. And I will never get over the day I got saved because, even as an eight-year-old boy, my eternity changed that day. And the most important thing is that no matter who you are or where you’re at today at this moment, yours can too.