VERY VERIFYING

Experience or time spent doing something is often used as verification for what a person does or is doing. Because someone says I have been doing this for 10, 20, 30, 40 years does not necessarily verify that a person has been ‘doing it right and meaningfully.’ It just means a person has been doing something for that amount of time. It could be that a person has been doing something wrong, misguided, untruthfully, upside-down and goofy for the same amount of time.

Verification has many factors besides time, effectiveness, production, profit, fruitfulness, sustainability, and replication to name a few. When I hear someone say, ‘I have been in ministry, or a school teacher, or a truck driver… for many years’ that does not verify to me that it has been done well, it just means it has been done. Verification for having done something well comes from others, not by telling others how long we have been doing something. It comes from fruitfulness.

“So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.” Jesus