!!WHAT DID YOU SAY!! Responding To The Unexpected

Hearsayby Pastor Joe Flores
The unexpected often happens in our lives to reveal the depth of our real character, the person who we really are, our truest self. In a court of law there is a rule concerning "hearsay". It is referred to as the hearsay rule of law. The hearsay rule of law says that "hearsay" is not accepted or allowed as evidence in a court of law. You've probably heard a lawyer on some TV show object to some statement that is made in the court on the basis of it being "hearsay". The hearsay rule is a commonly known fact even by the average legal laymen.

What you may not know is that there is an exception to the hearsay rule. The exception to the hearsay rule in a court of law is called the "excited utterance" exception.

An excited utterance, in the law of evidence, is a statement made by a person in response to a startling

 NathanChambers300X218
JHD logo 300X61
CandCsign

or shocking event or condition. It is an unplanned reaction to a "startling event". It is an exception to the hearsay rule. The statement must be spontaneously made by the person (the declarant) while still under the stress of excitement from the event or condition. The subject matter and content of the statement must "relate to" event or condition.

The reason that the "excited utterance" is an exception has a vast and complicated legalease explanation. In the simplest terms, an "excited utterance" is an exception to the hearsay rule because it is the clearest reflection of the person's most present state of mind. In other words, it reveals what the person was really thinking or it reveals the truest character, nature and mind set of the person under real life conditions. It tell what they are really thinking and who they really are.

God has a way of getting the truth of who we are, out of us. He knows how to startle us into releasing our most present thoughts. He knows how to elicit our "excited utterance".

It is how we respond in the startling situation that says the most about who we really are. We all have something that we want people to think about us, but God knows us and He knows how to get us to reveal our true nature.

I love listening to church testimonies, but I always remember that there is a strong possibility that a good portion of the real deal went unsaid. God knows how to allow the perfect situation to happen to us to get us to confess the truest nature of our hearts. So the next time the unexpected, abrupt, unanticipated, unforeseen startling situation pops up in your life, take a deep breathe before your "excited utterance" is released.

After it is said, whatever it maybe, take a minute to review your "excited utterance" and consider, to what degree does it disappoint you and more importantly, to what degree does it please God? -Pastor Joe Flores