On Saturday, I went to a bruncheon with one of my friends. When I arrived, I went through the line and stacked my plate with breakfast casserole, fruit, muffins, Minute Maid berry punch. We played some rather silly, very corny, but oh-so-enjoyable games with the thirty or so ladies that were there. I wasn't expecting an encounter with God there (even though it was being held at a church....)
And so, God decided to surprise me completely with a message from the guest speaker.
Her name was Jennifer, who is an intern at We Will Go Ministries. We Will Go is a lovely place in downtown Jackson, MS that reaches out to the homeless all around the state capitol. (www.wewillgo.org) I was introduced to the ministry by my best friend and her family. From the first time that I set foot in the outside worship center, I fell in love with it. This love was confirmed when Miss Amy Lancaster, the woman who started We Will Go with her husband, stood up to welcome us. She is THE most godly woman I've ever met, real life or not. You can practically see God poking his head through her all the time, giving her (manymanymany) words to speak. She's not afraid: not afraid to literally stretch out on the floor, getting down on her face in the middle of worship because she's so overcome, not afraid to love everyone who's there, not afraid to order us to stop thinking that everything is awkward, not afraid to say what she's really thinking. She begs consistently for Jesus to fill her with his love and fix her heart. She's the humblest person that I've ever met.
And it's not just her. All of the interns and workers and people at We Will Go are so much led by the Lord. It's the best example of church that I've experienced. It has shown me the way I could live if I were fearless, because the Lord will never forsake me. Going there to serve just 6 or 7 times, I've had the opportunity to love people I don't know, pray for them, see love change lives, and enjoy the company of others searching for God everywhere they can, even seeking Jesus in a homeless person's eyes.
(Sorry, I got a little sidetracked there. Can you see that I love being at We Will Go?) Jennifer talked about exactly what I needed, but not necessarily wanted to hear about: obedience.
I've never really been a rebellious person. I find the few rules that my parents have made for me to be completely reasonable. (I can hear the chant of "nerd, nerd, nerd...." start up now.) I do, however, rebel against God. I don't WANT to go talk to him when it's inconvenient for me or if I'm already busy with something else. I don't WANT to go pray for that person; what if they look at me funny? I don't WANT to love her, I just want to forget that she exists!
But when it's convenient or I'm 'okay' with doing what God instructed me to, he just says, "Well, why didn't you do that when I told you to?"
Obedience is not something that we as humans really like. We don't want to be told what to do. We like to feel in control of our own lives. Jennifer was there to tell me that I couldn't be in control of my own life if I wanted to truly belong to God. Ouch.
I had been thinking about obedience a lot anyway. That day there was something that I needed to sort out, and I was begging for God to take over my mouth and say whatever would sort it out with the right amount of love. I needed him to say the thing that for the life of me, I could not figure out how to say. All of the examples Jennifer brought up, stories of neighbors downtown coming to her door at 11:30 PM to get some food, stories from the Bible, hit home with me. All of them had a common thread, too: When a person is obedient to what God wants them to do, it all comes out in their favor.
The thing that I had to learn through this experience was that I need to be obedient all of the time. Not just when I can't figure out what to do myself, as was the case on Saturday, but also when I can see a way out on my own. Even then I still need to find out what God wants me to do. This lesson can apply to many things that I have been thinking about lately: going on a mission trip, going to camp, praying for my friends, praying for my ENEMIES; both things that I am desperate to do and things that I wish I wouldn't ever have to do.
God does come through every single time that we rely on him. Obedience to God's will brings about a much better solution than we could have ever dreamed of. His plans aren't even close to what ours are, and they might not turn out the way that we expect, but it's gonna be worth it.
I love you.
ReplyDelete