Yesterday I started a post that was titled Shaking in My Boots to tell you how unequipped I feel to be writing to you…or speaking up about anything….or trying to be anything other than invisible and just make it to heaven without making a fuss. You look in your head and heart and see more of what’s lacking than what’s there and the question has rattled around in my brain, “Who are you to think you can add something to the noise or help anyone else?” And then supper last night….
I will back up a second and tell you that I don’t watch the news as I find it frightening and depressing and I don’t always see how my life is enriched for it. I gave it up over a year ago. Typically, if something big is going on I find out about it one way or another. And now we are back to supper last night….
My father in law and brother in law came over and in the midst of steak fingers, gravy and boys bouncing around the dining room, my brother in law mentioned what was happening in Iraq. It was a quick sound bite…just a brief description of this group of Christians on a mountain seeking refuge from a group called Isis who is out to wipe Christians and America off the face of the earth. And we went on, I cleared the table and planned for the weekend. And then Facebook…..
I saw a video posted by a friend describing in more detail what was happening in Iraq and I was UNDONE.
How do we go camping this weekend…boating….mow our grass…have a cookout…just blithely roll around while people are suffering this way? While there are atrocities beyond what our minds can imagine happening to families just like our own? HOW? And I just told God – I can’t. I can’t…there are no words…enough tears…I can’t fix it…I’m too small…I’m powerless…and as my heart was raging and feeling so bruised He whispered back…but I CAN.
I CAN be there…
I CAN comfort….
I CAN fight….
I CAN hear your prayer and take it there…
I CAN bring peace….
And the I AM who always was and always will be IS there doing all of those things we wish we could do and SO much more.
Shout for joy, O heavens;
rejoice, O earth;
burst into song, O mountains!
For the Lord comforts his people
and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
So, to the question of why this matters…why does She’s Becoming matter in a world that feels so painful and huge and out of control. Why does my little blip of a life or yours matter? What can we really do about anything anyhow? When the questions start flying I run to the only place I know that holds TRUTH. And here’s what I found…
He does the heavy lifting while He asks us to:
Inhabit our time and space...and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. Acts 17:26
Do all for His glory…Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. Psalm 115:1
Fulfill the purposes He has planned for us…For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
He is not served, His glory not displayed when we play small…when we diminish the gifts He placed in us to do the job He put us here to do. When we make it about US instead of HIM then it doesn’t matter at all. We cannot and will not be able to make a dent in this world on our own. We MUST partner with God.
He designed us, He gave us the gifts + personality + time/place that would fit our specific job description.
And that’s where She’s Becoming enters the picture. My heart’s deepest longing is for us to know who we are, whose we are and how we live that out. I’m praying like a bad thing that She’s Becoming is a community that helps us do that. I don’t think you have fraction of a clue of what God could do through you when you are lined up with His will, confident in who you are IN HIM and then unleashed to go do that THING that He has put you here to do. There are no small parts. If it’s assigned by Him then it matters…YOU matter.
He’s not asking us to solve the problem of world hunger…or end war…or bring peace to parts of the world that rage seemingly uncontrolled…His hands hold all of that. He’s not asking us to be everywhere..or heal all the hurts…He IS.
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. Acts 17:24-25
He doesn’t actually need our help but in His wisdom and sovereignty, He invites us into the story.
We simply need to do our part in the place He has put us, for the people He has called us to, using the gifts He’s given us paired up with His immeasurable resources.
So we can shake in our boots, feel unequipped and bemoan the fact that our lives are feel so small and we are powerless in the face of immense suffering but that’s making it all about us. Instead, let’s put our faces on the floor in prayer. Let’s grab hold of God and everything He’s given us and take the ride. Let’s spend our lives for Him and His eternal purposes leaving this earth with NOTHING held back.
I ask – ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory – to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him – endless energy, boundless strength! Ephesians 1:18-19
1 thought on “Why this Matters”