Not all of you reading this are Christians.

But this guy is, and he just got 25+ million views on this mini-essay about his wife:

The internet is a brutal place, as Trevor quickly found out.

(Those are some of the nicest replies.)

Now, if a fellow brother in Christ had shared this with me at church, this is how I would respond:

But Trevor didn't share this with his church family or a specific group.

He put it on the internet. And as a social media advisor that helps ministries grow their social media, he definitely knows what posting on the internet means.

There's a lesson here for all of us that begins with Jesus' wise words about pearls and pigs.

'Don't give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces.' - Matthew 7:6

If you are a Christian, you are familiar with people sharing their testimonies, or personal stories. We encourage each other by witnessing to how God has pulled us out of dark places, and our own stories of freedom serve as hope for those who are still in sin's chains.

But understand, this is not how the world operates. It's odd to them.

It's even odder when that testimony is phrased in a way that hits a cultural fault line.

Consider Trevor's opening line compared to this skit:

Sounds kinda similar!

The majority of Americans don't attend church anymore, let alone read the Bible, let alone understand who the God of the Bible even is.

We live in a godless-yet-spiritual age of "modernity" where men have become excluded and bitter while women have become "liberated" to sin freely and often.

This might be the #1 issue facing our culture today. Marriage is declining, birth rates are declining, men are shifting hard to the political right while women shift hard to the political left, and everyone is addicted to porn and/or making porn.

To add insult to injury, American churches have been navel-gazing for decades instead of proclaiming the truth. We Christians are supposed to be laughingstocks, but in this case, Satan is also laughing.

Non-Christians who read Trevor's long post read his statement about his wife within their own cultural context. They don't even know that she posted her testimony on her blog in 2019, long before they had met or were married.

People think he's a beta male, possibly gay, who was tricked into marrying a party girl who settled for a "nice guy" now that her party days are over.

(No really, they think he's gay.)

Because they do not know him or his wife or his God, they think he is airing his wife's dirty laundry. This means that the post is doing the opposite of what it intended, serving as a ministry of destruction instead of a ministry of encouragement. It's like the leper in Mark 1 who did not listen to Jesus when he told him to "say nothing to no one" about being healed, but instead went out and told everyone and created problems for Jesus instead.

In this case, not only does the audience not understand the message of hope, but it has reinforced their belief that bad character can't be reformed. They are - and maybe this includes you, dear reader - the citizens of the City of Destruction in John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," or the spirits on the bus C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce."

They cannot even conceive of the idea that human nature can be changed, because that kind of claim is as ridiculous and nonsensical as a man rising from the dead.

And yet those are exactly the claims that make Christianity, well, Christianity.

The Apostle Paul gave his own life story multiple times as a testimony to prove that Jesus is indeed God, including before an angry crowd in Jerusalem (Acts 22:1-21), before Israelite King Agrippa and Roman Governor Festus (Acts 26:1-23), and churches he had planted (Galatians 1:11-24).

But Paul also contextualized his testimony for different audiences. When he was in Athens, he did not give them the finer points of how Jesus had fulfilled centuries of Jewish prophecies or the intricacies of the Mosaic law.

Instead, Paul introduced the Greeks to the revolutionary idea of one God instead of many, then quoted one of their own poets.

What can we learn from this?

Even if you have publicly spoken about something in the past, that does not mean sharing those details with every human being on the planet is a wise decision.

As Jesus said, he is sending us out like sheep among wolves, so be as innocent as doves ... but also shrewd as snakes (Matthew 10:16). This goes double for posting things in the age of global communication at the push of a button.

Still, God is faithful, and even when we write a super-long tweet (or op-ed on Not the Bee 🫠) that gets misinterpreted, He uses all things for his good purposes.

I pray for all the silent people who didn't comment: Those who might have heard for the first time that forgiveness and change are actually possible.

Because they are, ladies and gents. They truly are.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Not the Bee or any of its affiliates.