The Sacred Scriptures tell us, “Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you” (1 Pt 3:15). Before we set out to give our own personal testimonies, we need to be prepared. How do we prepare? We prepare ourselves first and foremost by prayer and reflection on the “wonderful works” that the Lord has done in our lives (Ps 105:5; cf. Ps 77:11-12, 143:5).[1] In the light of the Word of God, we want to truly understand the great things that God has done for us.
Before it Happened, What Happened, After it Happened
When we reflect on our lives with the goal of building a personal testimony, we want to keep in mind the basic structure or outline of most testimonies. This structure is simple: (1) life before receiving a special grace of God, (2) what happened when that grace was received, and (3) what life was like after having received the grace. If we are giving our most important personal testimony, our initial or major conversion, we can speak of the three parts even more simply as (1) Before conversion, (2) Conversion, and (3) After conversion. At the time of delivery a fourth part is often added, where you make (4) an invitation to the hearer(s) to respond to your story in some way, with the hope that they will be converted and embrace Jesus Christ as you have.
This complete four-part structure can be seen clearly in the book of Acts, where Saint Paul presents his own personal testimony. Standing before King Agrippa, he tells the story of his own initial conversion to Jesus Christ. The passage is Acts chapter 26, verses 4 through 29. Open your Bible, and read the account slowly. Notice each of the four parts of his speech — before conversion (v. 4-11), conversion (v. 12-18), after conversion (v. 19-23), and invitation (v. 24-29).[2]
After you have read St. Paul’s testimony, start to think about how you might tell the story of your own initial conversion according to the same outline. Ask the Lord to guide you. Get a pad of paper, and take notes as you consider the following questions. Before Conversion: What were things like before your conversion? Where did you get your security? Where did you think happiness was to be found? What motivated you in life? How did those things let you down?
Conversion: How did you encounter God? What helped you come to believe in Him? How did your conversion come about? Which sacraments gave you the grace you needed? When was the first time that you really heard the gospel? What was your initial reaction to it? When did your life start to change? What happened inside of you? Were there final struggles just before you made Jesus the Lord of your life?
After Conversion: What is life like now that you’ve converted to Christ? Are there sins that you have overcome? How do you view or experience your life differently? How have your motivations for life changed? What is your relationship with the Lord Jesus like? You may use the printable “Building Your Testimony” handout provided with this lesson for more help reflecting on what your best testimony might look like.
Conversions happen in different ways
As you reflect on the grace of God in your life, understand that not all conversion stories will be as simple and straightforward as that of St. Paul, who was profoundly transformed in a single experience from an enemy of Christ to His devoted disciple, and in short order was sent out to preach Him to the world. Most conversion stories, on the other hand, are more complex. Some of us, for instance, experienced a number of partial conversions to Christ that culminated in a more complete one. Are you one of those people? Some others find that their conversion cannot be pinned down to any one moment at all, but consisted, rather, in a gradual transformation that took place over a period of time. Was that the way it happened for you? Such conversions are no less real than conversions that take place (or come to a climax) in a clearly identifiable moment. When you deliver such testimonies, it can be helpful to describe a moment when you realized, looking back with gratitude, that you had already been transformed by the Lord.
Some of us, when building our testimony, find it difficult to identify any major conversion at all. Usually this is because we were baptized as infants, grew up in the faith of the Church, and never strayed from the path of Our Lord in major ways. Does this describe you? If so, know that you, too, probably have an initial or “major” conversion story to tell, even if it might be more difficult to tease out. Your story may be about a conversion to a more intimate relationship with Jesus, or a conversion away from some kind of sin, or a conversion to a greater degree of personal maturity in the Lord. There are a great many examples, in the history of the Church, of this kind of conversion. [3]
There is something else to be aware of. As we reflect on the grace of God in our life for the first time, some of us will discover that our major conversion story is not yet complete. Perhaps we presently are struggling to overcome some mortal sin that we keep falling into. Perhaps there is some important part of our life (money, family, free time, etc.) that up until now we have refused to submit to Jesus’s rule — we’ve refused to obey. Perhaps we are tyrannized by fear, anger, envy, lust, greed, laziness, unforgiveness, or addiction, and we have not yet begged for and received freedom from the Lord. As we consider how the saving power of Christ has changed our life, many times we realize that we still need His power in big ways — perhaps even urgently, desperately. In such cases, we may still sometimes be called to give a personal testimony; but more importantly, in such cases we are called to beg the Lord for transforming grace, and take the concrete steps needed to rid ourselves of whatever is holding us back. Trusting in Jesus, we know that He will deliver us. He is faithful — if we ask Him, we know that at a future time we will have occasion to praise Him anew as we tell the story of how He brought us from darkness to light, from death to life. In the meantime, we can still tell others of the good things the Lord has done for us.
[1] At the Last Supper, Jesus commanded His disciples, “Do this in memory of me.” When we participate in the Holy Eucharist, we recall and make present the greatest work that the Lord has done for us, His suffering and death on the cross. Flowing from this, we ought to develop the habit of regularly — even daily — calling to mind all the good things that the Lord has done for us. We do this first of all that we might thank Him and praise Him, secondly that we might be ready to share the goodness of the Lord with others.
[2] Also pay attention to the casual way that Paul speaks, and how he speaks to his audience, and how he proclaims the gospel while he gives his testimony. We will cover these things at greater length in future lessons.
[3] A classic example of this kind of major/initial conversion comes from the life of St. Therese of Lisieux. Although she was baptized in infancy and raised in the faith by devout parents, she points to a “Christmas grace” she received at the age of fourteen as a critical point in her spiritual life, even calling it “the precious grace of complete conversion.” That grace freed her from the (relatively minor) vice of over-sensitivity and childishness. From the moment she received that grace on Christmas Eve, she writes, “charity took possession of my heart, making me forget myself, and I have been happy ever since.” After that experience, she very quickly became moved with a great longing to intercede and save souls from hell. See Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux, ed. Mother Agnes of Jesus, trans. Michael Day (Charlotte, NC: Saint Benedict Press, 2010), 53-55.