Testimony

We were at Selah for our second retreat last weekend.  Our assignment was to share our testimonies in a creative manner.  I went with a poem (surprise) but we had everything from power points, to posters, to dressing up, to rap songs (that was Jean).  I am amazed by the very different paths that God has led each of us on to bring us to the same place.  After we finished sharing testimonies, some of the girls were helping another girl carry all her props back to her room and I could not help but find it an awsome illustration of the verse where we are told to "bear one another's burdens."  The things they were carrying represented her burdens and they were helping to carry them.  :-)

My testimony poem is the hardest thing I've ever tried to write.  It wasn't just the format but also the topic.  How do I communicate what God has done in my life?  From the outside looking in, I have had a near-perfect life.  But God is at work all the same because I'm not perfect.  So it was hard to find the words to craft my testimony.  I hope you'll understand it.

A simple story is mine to tell

Of how my God saved me from hell

Oh!  Listen friends and listen well

His grace has sounded Death’s death knell

A child I was when God’s grace came

Adopted me in, gave me His name

A name to which I’ve oft brought shame

Yet nonetheless He loves me the same

My father it was who told me first

Of the perfect Son and Sin’s dark curse

Of Christ’s life and death and the worst

Sep’ration from God, the Last and the First

In the beginning, Dad told me

Adam sinned, thus so do we

The punishment was death, you see

No matter how small the sin may seem

My debt of sin the cross repaid

And in the tomb the Christ was laid

Til o the third day He was raised

Proof of the power He had claimed

I know not how much I truly grasped

But this I do—God’s love had cast

It’s binding spell o’er me at last

My heart was His, forever clasped

The years have passed—18 or so

In which His faithfulness is shown

He’s guarded my heart and body I know

Without Him, I’ve nothing here to show

My testimony cannot end there

For endless is His love and care

Though trials light have been my share

My heart from His I’ve tried to tear

It’s hard for me to see my sin

Because of the things I’ve never been

Pride and arrogance, they creep in

With the lie, “You’re better than them”

Comfort, security, I did seek

From family, friends, from day to week

Instead of looking to Christ the meek

Inside God’s word I’d barely peek

Building worth on knowledge learned

With pride I was little concerned

Til once again, God’s love it burned

Into my life with grace unearned

Showed me then the black of my pride

And the things in which I often hide

The books, the knowledge, the comfort wide

Pulled me away on Love’s strong tide

A haughty look He says He hates

But comes to him who humbly waits

He alone can fill my plate

In God the King is comfort great

I know I’ll often drift away

From the path He bid me stay

A rough, unwilling lump of clay

Yet He is with me all the way

God plumbed the depths of His supply

From death and sin my heart did buy

He gave His Son—I scarce grasp why

But this I know—‘Twas Him, not I