"No, go back to your family, and tell them everything God has done for you." So he went all through the town proclaiming the great things Jesus had done for him.
Luke 8:39
This is what we see the man who had a legion of demons cast out of him doing in the wake of his miracle. The demons are cast into swine and fall off a ravine and die. The town is so disturbed by this miracle that they beg Jesus to leave. The one who was healed wants to stay with Jesus, but he obeys Jesus's directive to go tell others about what had been done.
His story is one that shook the foundations of what the people around him could understand. The idea of someone powerful enough to cast out demons they had long feared was terrifying. I can only imagine the responses to the man's story as he proclaimed it.
Shock. Awe. Belief. Hope.
As believers, we may not have stories that are as dramatic as this man's life, but we do have our stories.
They matter.
Our job is to tell them with the intensity with which we feel them. We need to share the details of who we were before and who we are now and who we, with God's grace, may become. This is the kind of stuff that everyone on earth hungers and thirsts for - the idea that we are loved, that we can be redeemed.
Our prescribed "testimony" of date, age, and place of salvation is not bad, but it's not as moving or as compelling as our personal narratives, the ups and downs of our relationship with Jesus. We don't need to tell every gory detail we've ever experienced in our lives, but we do need to be real and honest.
The world is looking for someone or something to connect with, and stories are the absolute best. Especially the stories that are true.
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