We recently went on a mini vacation with my mom and had a rather unfortunate experience eating out. It started with a mistake on our part and went downhill from there. We had just arrived at the hotel that afternoon and decided – at the exuberant requests of the kiddos – to spend a little time in the pool before heading out to dinner. We relented – no one was really hungry anyway. Well, we chose poorly.
After the time it took to get ready for the pool, lose track of time at the pool, and getting cleaned up after the pool, it was already after 8pm when we got to the restaurant. My kiddos are used to having lights out at 8:30pm on a regular basis (well, as regular as possible). We were there and decided to go ahead and eat since we didn’t really have anything back at the room to feed 8 people. We were seated at a table that had no condiments, it took more than half an hour to get our drinks (we all ordered water), and those are the drinks that our server never offered to refill. The food tasted amazing, but the service was sub-sub-sub-par (did I mention that the service was bad?).
The kiddos were amazing – they didn’t cry, they didn’t whine, and they kept good attitudes even though they were fading from a long day. We were even able to start making jokes about our experience within minutes of leaving. It could have been so much worse (we did have a three-year-old in tow). If I had read a review detailing what we had experienced, we might have chosen a different place to eat – so I decided to leave a review.
I don’t always leave reviews, which is crazy because I make decisions on purchases based on reviews, but I’m learning the power of them in more ways than my shopping and dining experiences. How many people make assumptions of others based on the reviews highlighting their good and bad moments in time? As someone who once struggled with alcohol, I have had quite a few negative reviews. And even though there are a few positive reviews sprinkled in over the course of my life, those bad reviews bring my overall rating down. See where I’m going with this?
Reviews are extremely influential in my shopping and dining, but I’ve noticed that testimonies are weightier.
We all have our reviews – the ones we carry around that are about ourselves and the ones we make and read about others – and all of those reviews tie into testimonies. Can you imagine going to church and not reading the Bible? Well, that’s what the early church did. They relied on talking about what they had seen – what they had seen, heard, or experienced first-hand. These meetings would include reviews that would turn into testimonies. And they all had one thing in common – there was an encounter with Jesus.
I’ve written about the Samaritan woman in my Unnamed Women series (He Came to Her), but I want to share another insight that popped up recently. Jesus had already read the reviews on this woman – even told her as much – yet He still went to that well where He knew He would meet her. Take a moment to read this beautiful telling of their encounter in John 4:1-42.
I’m going to level with you – if I read enough bad reviews about a place, I won’t even give it a chance. Well, Samaria was a place that had a half-star review according to the Jews. They wouldn’t travel through Samaria even though it was the shortest route between Judea and Galilee. In some translations of John 4:4, it uses the words He must needs go when it came to Jesus deciding to travel through Samaria. It’s almost as though He had read a top-notch review that convinced him that Samaria was a wonderful place to be.
He must needs go. No other Jew was saying that about Samaria – and I certainly wasn’t saying it about the restaurant we went to on vacation – but Jesus is different.
Jesus not only went where no other Jew cared to go – He went for her. She was not a good person. She was not one of God’s chosen people – she was considered an outcast by both the Jews and her own people because of her pedigree, lifestyle and mistakes. She was a walking bad review. Like me, have you identified as a walking bad review? That’s probably a pretty close sentiment this woman had for herself. But then Jesus showed up.
And oh, how He did!
He mentioned better things to come, she wanted those better things, but He wanted to know about the reviews. She answered honestly about one of the reviews and He commended her for her honesty… But then He shared with her His knowledge of all the bad reviews. She begins to see Jesus as a prophet and decides to challenge Him about how a Samaritan could possibly turn the bad reviews around since they weren’t even allowed to worship where they were told they were required to worship. It’s like she was asking for a bit of hope.
Do you understand that if an establishment has too many bad reviews, their business will not be successful? This isn’t just for businesses. This Samaritan woman had a lot of bad reviews and didn’t see any hope for turning it around, but Jesus was telling her that He already knew about every bad review and was the Messiah – Christ – the One who was to turn all those bad reviews around. He was there to bring peace, hope, and a future to even those who had bad reviews. He was telling her that His must needs go was for her… even with her bad reviews.
This realization of who she was speaking with and that He was there for her filled her with a passion that spread throughout that entire Samaritan city. Other Samaritans who knew her bad reviews sought Jesus out because of her testimony! Her bad reviews being turned around gave her a future and a hope – and her testifying about her encounter with the Messiah brought others to Him as well.
Imagine who might begin a relationship with God if they were to hear your testimony? It’s not your whole life story – it might be one bad review that you saw God turn around in your life. Don’t let the bad reviews define you the way we saw the Samaritan woman did before she encountered Jesus. Let Him define you based on His review of you. I guarantee that on a scale from one to ten, you are an eleven. Now go tell others. We must needs go.