Day Twenty-Eight

Last night's visit with friends went well. It never ceases to amaze me how we all have a story to tell. The more people I meet, the more I realize that nobody has a boring life story, you know?

I remember growing up in the church (you church peeps will totally relate to this, I KNOW it) and from time to time people would give their "testimony." Now, the term testimony is a Christianese word for "life story." Christianese is a fancy language spoken by Christians including but not limited to the terms "blessings" and "born again." The Urban Dictionary describes Christianese as a manner of speaking within the American Christian subculture in which the speaker cloaks the words being said under the mask of 'love' but in reality, is saying it for the sole purpose of hurting you.

Christianese: "I really feel that God is telling me to say this to you..."

Translation: "I am going to hurt you now... in Jesus' name, Amen."

Anyway, okay so when Christians would give their testimonies, more often than not they would go like this: "I grew up in a Christian home but then I backslid (Christianese for "I smoked a cigarette and littered my McDonalds napkin") in my teen years but then I gave it all up for the glory of God (Christianese for "as long as God doesn't ask me to stop masturbating, I won't smoke or litter ever again.")

I have to add here though that I HAVE heard many people give amazing stories of their lives, in church and not, that have rocked my world in every way possible. It's truly incredible how many people have horror stories, and how their faith has helped them not only live through it all, but live well. I love hearing those stories because they inspire me and they inspire me because they are real. Tangible. Applicable. An imbecile can shit the bed, but it's what we do with our mess after that makes all the difference. It takes guts to get back up, clean up the mess and move forward. When people share their stories with me about how they messed up, how the pain felt, and how they are moving forward, I get humbled that they'd trust me with their vulnerability. I feel honored, I do.

That's what life is about, right? Vulnerability, trust, making mistakes and cleaning the mess up together. Arm in arm, linked together connected by the bridges of our imperfect humanness and the tight ropes of faith. Sharing our hearts, our testimonies, our stories.

In Jesus' name, Amen.