OK, here's the setup: You have before you an interested cross-section of people from your community. They know your name, but not much else. You have 60-seconds to tell them why you are a person of faith.

 

You want to be honest and authentic, without offending or ruffling feathers. Your challenge is to honor God with your heart and your words. Where do you start?

 

I believe that inside us is a spiritual core. For me, this core has leaked out into every part of my life. It has empowered me to be a better person and helped me cope with my struggles. I have found the teachings of Jesus have lifted my spirit and connected my dots...

 

Or, start here...

I don't know about you, but I want to experience the best in life. When my time comes, I want to round third base and slide into home plate, raise my fist into the air and shout, "WOW, what a ride!" Without God, I would miss too much of the good stuff. God has had to whack me up the side of the head a few times, but I have learned he is a giver and I am at my best when I'm a giver, too...

 

Maybe this fits...

It seems like life is stuck in fast forward with very few pause buttons. I wish there were more pauses, don't you. They give us time to catch up, to re-think, to reflect. My faith gives me regular times to stop and do a gut check on my priorities and my choices. My faith helps me clarify and understand and see the good...

 

One more...

Everything around me is so mixed up, so scrambled. Random change and useless information seem to dominate clocks and calendars. I want to live for something bigger than myself, so I have found my faith keeps my choices from being so self-centered. Without faith it would be all about me and that would be really sad, trust me, I know...

 

Sometimes, 60-seconds happens in a moment, a defining moment that changes everything for life. And, sometimes our 60-seconds becomes a holy story. 

 

The movie Chariots of Fire portrays the true story of Eric Liddell. Young Eric loved to run. He lived to run—for God. The movie tells his story pointing toward his running for Great Britain in the 1924 Olympics. 

 

Though the movie took liberties telling the story, one of the early races in the movie was based on an actual race. A year before the Olympic showdown, Liddell ran in a meet between England, Ireland, and Scotland. At the beginning of the 440-yard event, Liddell tangled feet with J.J. Gillies of England and tumbled to the track. Dazed, Liddell sat there, bewildered, till he heard an official yelling, “Get up and run!”

 

Eric got up and ran—it was spectacular. The others were a full twenty yards ahead of him, but within the last forty yards he pulled into third place, then second. Right at the tape he stuck his chest out just ahead of Gillies, and won the race. 

 

The next day The Scotsman newspaper reported, "The circumstances in which Liddell won the race made it a performance bordering on the miraculous." Those who were there told the story of Eric's race: "It was the greatest track performance ever."

 

That was just the beginning for Liddell, after the Olympics,  he became a missionary to China with a captivating 60-second God story to tell.

 

So, write your own... remember you've only got 60-seconds.

 

Once you have written your faith-statement, send this Faith Note to a friend and ask him or her to do the same. Then, set a time and share your statements. Ask God to help you refine them and make them part of you. 

 

The next step is the most challenging. Ask God to give you a moment with a stranger when you can share your 60-second message. It's all about faith.