If I Told You

GCD Weekly Newsletter - 6th December 2024

I’d never seen him at church before, so I went and said hi. He was visiting, and didn’t know how long he’d be around, but I told we were happy he was there and invited him to sit with us. As the conversation progressed, we seemed to be constantly skirting around what exactly he did for a job. I asked a couple of times before I cheekily asked, “Is it one of those if I told you, I’d have to kill you kinds of jobs.”

I’d expected him to laugh, but with an apologetic look he simply said:

“Actually, sort of, yeah.”

I did my best to recover, although I was obviously a little taken aback.

After the service he thanked me for welcoming him, and we never met again. I think about him every now and then, and about the job he might or might not be doing. It has also led me to think more about those words, “If I told you.”

His situation may have been an exception, but the words aren’t. I’ve met so many people who walk into church for the first time thinking, “If only they knew,” or who have said outright, “If I told you about my past, you’d think differently about me.”

Some have committed serious sins, others just believe themselves to be beyond help. What they all have in common though, is that they came. They took the difficult step over the threshold today and you’re standing in front of them.

If we told them, what would they think? What if we told them about the sins—our sins!—that Jesus took upon himself on the cross? Could we tell them about the ways that God redeemed our family, our marriage, that friendship, the financial crisis that we caused and still can’t believe we survived. Are we willing to humble ourselves to that point? What if the next time someone says, “If I told you” we replied,

“Let me tell you something.”

Grace and Peace,

Adsum Try Ravenhill is married to Anna and together they are passionate about seeing men and women discipled in the context of the local church. They live in Reading, UK and are part of a church plant that meets in the town hall. Adsum edits the GCD Weekly Newsletter and can be found through his writing at The Raven’s Writing Desk. You can find all of Adsum’s previous articles for GCD here.

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