Commentary:  Response to Jennifer O'Neill

"To share in the sorrow of His suffering through another's testimony is to enlarge our hearts and souls"

We received some interesting feedback from the weekend Jennifer O'Neill spoke at our church.

I heard a few guys say something like, "Yeah it was good, but I felt like I was at a women's conference."

Others said, "It wasn't really a sermon, it was a story."

For the most part, what I saw was a lot of people walking out of the church sanctuary, some crying, who had had an emotional experience that touched the very core of some of their deepest pain and fears. 

Jennifer spoke with honesty and candor about her suicide attempt, her failed marriages, an abortion, child molestation, and so many other painful and hard episodes that hardly a person walked out of church that morning without being personally touched on some level.  When we take in the story of a fellow human being whose experiences perhaps mirror some of our own, we relate in a way that I believe can bring healing in our own lives.

Revelation 12:11 is why I invited Jennifer O'Neill to speak: "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death."

A testimony is a powerful thing.  As a young believer I remember listening to a radio show called "Unshackled" broadcast by the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, Illinois.  I also attended Skyline Wesleyan church and Sunday night was testimony night.  I heard dramatic and moving stories of how God changed lives and transformed pain and sorrow into triumph and victory and I've never forgotten it. 

The blood of the Lamb, and the words of a testimony can overcome the accuser of our souls, the enemy of our hearts and minds.

By hearing such a compelling story of someone's sorrow and triumph, we are given the chance to enter into another person's pain, and to understand his or her unique sorrow. In his book A Grace Disguised:  How the Soul Grows Through Loss, Gerald Sinster writes, "Sorrow took up permanent residence in my soul and enlarged it. One learns the pain of others by suffering one's own pain."

In Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolerstorff, a Yale professor and theologian, writes, "Through the prism of my tears I have seen a suffering God.  It is said of God that no one can behold His face and live.  I always thought it meant that no one can see His splendor and live—perhaps it meant that no one could see His sorrow and live.  Or perhaps His sorrow is splendor."

To share in the sorrow of His suffering through another's testimony is to enlarge our hearts and souls, and to rejoice in the same victory and ability to overcome all that the enemy throws at us.

I admire the courage and transparency of someone like Jennifer O'Neill who allows her story to touch others in such a profound way.  What I heard in response was an outpouring of emotion, a recognition of grief and sorrow and hope —hope that God can indeed triumph over all.

Pastor Ray

Your comments are welcome at:  media@maranathachapel.org