Photoshop sometimes hates me, but when I put my fingers to the keyboard, I can’t stop until I have a finished product.  Because of this, I try to finish any blogging before my office-mate arrives so that I don’t come off as some kind of cold, conversation-hating buffoon.  Sadly, I rarely finish all my thoughts in a quick manner, so I’m typically furiously typing away when Jess arrives at 9:00 AM.

It’s pretty funny though, how sometimes being long-winded is really good and sometimes it’s not.  At small group, for example, sometimes I can talk and talk and talk, and other times, I can listen and listen and listen.  Each can be good depending on the topic and the temperament of the group on that particular day.

Sometimes being short is good.  When I first started to really get involved with Common Ground (around Easter 2004), I would meet with Kevin and other small group leaders at the Einstein Bagels near the mall every single Saturday at 8:00 AM (you read that right, 8:00 AM on a Saturday…I thought it was a sin, too, but apparently it’s not).  Back then, we only had a couple small groups, so the meetings were pretty intimate, and often we would discuss church-overall and upcoming events rather than the details of our small groups.  On any given Saturday, it was me, Kevin, Fong, and a dude named Stephen Christopher (a double first-namer…that’s a special distinction in my mind).  We would debate ideas and talk about church.  This is where I started to really develop my love of the organizational and “behind-the-scenes” decision making that goes into the day-to-day operation of a church.

Let me get to the point that I’ve been marking a circuitous path around.  I remember that during the first or second small group leaders meeting at Einstein’s, Kevin threw out a challenge to us leaders that would encourage us to be brave and bold, and when necessary, brief, when sharing Jesus with people.  The point was that we live in a world where everything is fast, from food to cars to movies to sloths (okay, maybe not sloths); and because we live in this high-paced world, we’re not always given an opportunity to sit down and discuss life with all the people we may run into.  This doesn’t mean that God is going to provide fewer opportunities to share His love with the people around us.  It just means that the people around us may not provide us with the amount of time our predecessors had to share Christ with the people around them.  

So, practically, Matt, how do I deal with this?  Well, as they say in the Boy Scouts (maybe Cub Scouts, I don’t remember), “Be Prepared.”  This is where Kevin’s challenge came in.  Know your testimony because it is unique to you and it is relevant to someone, maybe everyone, no matter what path led you to Jesus.  Second, be able to share the key aspects of your personal testimony in as short as two minutes.  This should include where you were, how you met Jesus, where that has brought you, and how God is moving in your life now.  Kevin challenged me to be able to do this without sounding like the guy at the end of car commercials rattling off the conditions of a sales pitch at 100 words a minute.

I pass along this challenge.  Not because I think you should rattle off your testimony in two minutes or less, but because sometimes you may have to.  Don’t let the opportunity to share God’s love pass you by just because someone doesn’t appear to have the time.

This has been a long-winded blog about a short subject.

-Matt M.