Affecting People with Positivity: How God Can Make Bad Things Beautiful Through Grace

    There's something really beautiful that I feel in my heart when I hear about/see people who have lived over half of their lives not knowing/following God, going through so many hardships, having their lives instantly changed by salvation, and then sharing that as a testimony of his grace. Now don't get me wrong- it's equally as beautiful when someone has known and followed God their entire life- but it just goes really deep when you see where God has brought someone to in such a short period of time from where they've been.

    Jefferson Bethke's new video on youtube made me think of that. He was saved at 19, is now 26, and is one of the many people I look up to because of the amazing things God has done in his life, and how God has turned terrible situations into beautiful testimonies that touch lives. How awesome is it that God places people in this world, in our lives, to teach each other about his incredible grace through our own life experiences? How incredible is it that Jeff has only lived a quarter of a century, yet his life situations are documented in a book that will last for more than centuries and touch lives of hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions and more of people?

    That's what I want my life to be like. No, I don't want to get arrested at Target, although I have done some pretty crazy things like getting a ticket this year for sitting in a skate park after dark in NYC. I actually never knew that  was this huge concern since I wasn't doing anything illegal either than sitting in the park after midnight. Like don't cops in NYC have more important things to do then give me a ticket for sitting on cold cement after dark?? Anyway, that's a different story for a different day, but, back to the subject. I do want my life to be full of sharing with people  God's love and grace that isn't earned, but how it's freely given-when we don't deserve it- through the testimonies of my past experiences.

    I've known God since I was 8, but that doesn't mean I haven't gone through some pretty crazy things- bad situations can and will happen to you no matter how long you've been walking with God. That's just life- you're still living it no matter if you were born a Christian, became a Christian or never became one. Bad things don't just happen to good people, they happen to all people. The situations I've gone through in my 21 years of life have deeply effected me, but I don't let them continue to affect me. I also don't let them define me- I'm a child of God who is loved for who I am, not known by my mistakes. Your mistakes don't define who you are.

     Knowing God all of your life doesn't mean you don't have a testimony. You could have known him all this time and chose not to follow him. You could have followed him all this time and chose not to know him.  Let those two sentences sink in.

   It's basically the description of phrase we all know, "actions speak louder than words," put into the context of saying your a Christian, or actually being a Christian. You can say words but they're just going to be words until your actions show for what you say. There's the difference of just knowing Jesus or actually following Jesus. It doesn't matter "how long you've known Jesus," but how long you've walked with and followed him- how long you've let him know you.  I've known a lot of people in my life, but that doesn't mean that I've walked with them, been friends with them, and let them know me.

   Well it's the same thing with Jesus. Like I said before, you could have known him all this time and chose not to follow him, or you could have followed him all this time and chose not to know him.  Many people know the name Jesus, but do you just know of him or do you actually know who he is and follow him because of that?

    There's one other thing you could have done, other than not knowing him at all and it's knowing him all this time AND choosing to follow him. That's what I've done. Sure, I'm not perfect like anyone else and I've screwed up. I've fallen short and I've sinned, but that doesn't mean I'm not a follower of Christ. I've been forgiven and there's the grace of God that has allowed me to  let my past situations affect people in a positive way instead of continuing to effecting me in a negative way like they used to.

     I feel like that's truly how you let go of the past. and let God shine through your past as you share your testimony with people who need grace and hope just as much as you did during that time in your life. That's how God can truly turn a bad situation into something beautiful.  That doesn't mean, however, that you aren't going to ever struggle again with that past situation. It doesn't mean that someone isn't going to say something to you that makes you think of what happened to you. It doesn't mean that you're not going to feel an ounce of pain from the memory of the past.

    But the really great thing is that God knows. He knows your heart, how it needs to heal, and believe it or not, he tends to heal you the more you openly talk about it to people. And I don't mean you have to tell everyone you meet about that terrible thing that happened to you. If you want to- and the choice is completely up to you- you can start however you feel comfortable. Maybe with a pastor or  a friend via text, and increase it by gradually telling the people you trust as you feel more comfortable to do so. It actually helps your heal and I'm a witness to that.

    If you want God to change your circumstance you need to allow him to change your heart. Believe it or not, that's why he placed people on this earth. To walk alongside each other, encourage each other, and help each other grow.  Nine times out of ten the people you knew while you went through a situation that they didn't know happened to you will be more loving than you could possibly know, their words helping you grow but also helping you heal. By telling them you might even discover that they too went through that situation.

    That doesn't always look pretty- it doesn't always seem like this beautiful testimony right when you start to share. You might sob a lot and have snot dripping onto your shirt, but I promise you once you're healed and able to share that with people without those bodily things happening, it's going to be beautiful. When God's done with all the pruning and prodding to make you more beautiful than before- and he will do that- it's a lot easier to tell your testimony. It's a lot easier to see how God was there and he didn't leave you, now that you're looking back.  It's a lot easier to realize that you were actually never alone.

   That's part of how we can show people that we aren't defined by our situations, but we use these past experiences to define how good and just God is in a world that needs to know that there is hope. If you don't share what God has done in your life,  that one girl in youth group might never feel like someone understands what she's going through. She may never realize how much she's loved. She may never get the opportunity to turn her life around right then before she goes down a path that is so much worse. She may not get to experience the grace that you did, or realize that grace has always been waiting for her, because that same thing happened to you two years ago and you decided not to share it because you were afraid of being judged.

    I mean isn't that why we don't share things? We're afraid of being judged. We're so scared that what happened to us that was out of our control is going to negatively change how someone thinks of us, that we try to act like nothing has happened. We try to act like we're still the same happy kid that didn't have a care in the world as we ate an entire chocolate cake and had icing all over our faces, yet after eating that cake we have the worst stomach ache in the world.

    From past experience, I know that if someone I was close to looked at me as if I were a bad person because of what happened to me that was completely out of my control, they weren't worth my time. Luckily, ten times out of ten that never happened. Rarely does someone who loves and supports you look at your pain that was caused by a situation you couldn't control and spite you for it. Instead, believe it or not, they love you because they understand what it's like to be in a situation that's out of their control. They love you because they understand that.
 You may never know that what used to effect you negatively can now affect people positively until you share your story about how God has changed your life. It doesn't matter how small that may look to you, cause I guarantee you it will change at least one life.



If you're interested, here's Jefferson Bethke's newest video, on Youtube, which actually made me think of and write about this entire post, click this short, five minute video below. He also just came out with a new book, It's Not What you Think, which is an amazing book that I own and love, and stil haven't read because I've been reading pregancy books- HOWEVER I recommend it because I've seen and heard snippets of the book that are already wonderful. So why not buy this book and experience the entirety of wonderfulness? And the cover art is beautiful! There's also an audio book if you just want to hear it being read. The links to all of those sources are in the description of his video on Youtube. Enjoy!