Beauty in a simple “Yes”
There are 3 things that I want to touch on in this blog. Honestly, they weave together quite a bit, and I don’t know what order to share them in. So, I’m just going to hop straight into a story from last week.
I am now 6 weeks into this nomad life. I have spent a week in Virginia (at a lake house), a weekend camping in the Smokies, a week in Colorado with family, 2 weeks in Tennessee, 2 days driving all the way out to California, a week in California, and am now a week into road-tripping back through national parks. We have already seen Mount Rushmore, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite, Crater Lake, and Olympic. I am currently sitting in Spokane, WA waiting for my windshield to get fixed (it got shattered on our drive yesterday). From here, we head out to Glacier tonight.
But the crazy story I have for you comes from this past Sunday. I was with the 3 friends that are crazy enough to do this adventure with me and another friend who lives in California. We got a late start at Yosemite for the day and didn’t start hiking until a little after 2. We started hiking to Cloud’s Rest (a ridiculously beautiful ridge overlook of the entire valley). About 1.5 miles in we realized that we weren’t going to make it in time. My 4 friends told me that I could leave them and try to make it to the top, if I wanted. Little did I know what was in store. My math side kicked in and I figured that I had to put in 10-12 minute miles each way to be able to get up and back before sunset (assuming 30 minutes at the top). I quite literally ran the remaining 6-7 miles up 3500 feet of elevation to get to the top on pace. On the way back, I ran out of water with about 5 miles to go (and a mountain to get over). But, I made it out just before sunset! And let me tell you, the views were so worth it!
But none of that is what this story is about. In the 30-45 minutes I spent on top, the Lord brought this crazy opportunity before me. I had just sat down to eat some trail mix and was listening to a recording of a worship night on my phone. It was a worship night from 10 days prior that took place at a dear family’s house.
Truly, a family that has been my deepest community for the last 3 years, a family taught me so much about what following the Lord looks like practically, and a family that has become a second family to me. The context of this worship night was a send off for a beautiful little girl the family had been fostering for 9 months. This little girl was rescued out of trafficking last thanksgiving and has been a part of their family ever since. The morning after the worship night, she was sent back home to Honduras to be reunited with her mom.
So this worship night is what is playing on my phone. It gets to a point where the dad of the family is sharing about this little girl’s story. He also starts sharing facts about refugees from compassion international. He finishes by sharing Galatians 5:14 which says, “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Little did I know that there was another man listening from the other side of the ridge from me. His name is Jacques, and he is 24 years old. He asks me if I really believed what I was listening to. I told him yes, and just started asking him questions. It turns out that he is a refugee himself, from Ghana. He has been in the US since he was 6, doesn’t know his actual family, and never really found an actual family in the US.
I was able to start sharing the entire story of this little girl with Jacques. Then I was able to point him to all of the hope and beauty in the situation because of Jesus. I was able to explain to him that we trust the Lord with this little girl (as hard as that is) because we are able to look back and see that we did absolutely nothing to bring this little girl into our lives. Not only that, but we watched the Lord provide even more abundantly through COVID (as weird as that may sound). It gave us even more time to be present and love on this little girl. I shared the miracles that we have seen along the way. I shared the beauty of watching this little girl start singing Revelation Song at a worship night… in Spanish and unprompted… only to tell us that her mom used to sing that song to her every night. I was able to share the hope and trust we have that going forward this little girl will come to know Jesus. That the Father cares for her far more than we ever could, and that we can trust He has a plan for her life.
From there I was able to walk Jacques through the Gospel. And by the end I was able to pray with Jacques, as tears swelled in his eyes. He wanted to start a relationship with Jesus! Y’all, absolutely ridiculous!
But here is what I want everyone to hear in this story… nothing happened because I am a certain level of eloquent, qualified, skilled, or anything like that. I didn’t even do anything other than answer Jacques’ questions (and truthfully some of my answers were simply “I don’t know”). It was probably the easiest Gospel presentation I have ever given. And it didn’t happen because I am “well-versed” in evangelizing. It happened because I simply said yes to the opportunity the Lord put in front of me.
Honestly, I have asked the Lord that question many times in my life. Why me? Why do you continuously give me opportunities and platforms to share? Like, I suck! I constantly wrestle with sin and pride. Why do you keep using me? And the only answer I have ever received back from the Lord is this: “Because you say yes”. What I need everyone reading this to hear is that the Lord isn’t looking for qualified. He is looking for people who are simply willing.
And that brings me to the last thing I want to share which is what I’m learning in scripture right now. It comes from Judges 6-7. It is the story of Gideon. There is SO much to this story, but I will try to be brief. The story of Gideon goes like this. Gideon was extremely unqualified. He is found working wheat in a wine press. For context, he was hiding. Nobody worked wheat in a wine press. It was extremely inefficient and laborious because all of the wind was blocked. The entire nation was living life in fear, and the Lord actually calls them out for it.
For 7 years straight, this nation had farmed the land and this huge army (The Midianites) came and stole all their crops. Gideon stops and basically says, “if the Lord is with us, things shouldn’t look like this”. Gideon refused to accept God’s presence without God’s power. Gideon wasn’t a man who prayed little prayers that actually still left him in control. Gideon was a man who walked into impossible situations knowing that the Lord had to show up for anything to happen.
The Lord calls Gideon to save the nation and defeat the Midianites. Gideon asks, how in the absolute heck is that possible!? God responds with the same answer He gave Moses… Surely, I will be with you. And He goes on to tell Gideon that they will defeat the Midianites as one man. Side note: that’s an incredible look into the kind of unity the church is called to. We aren’t called to be a group of people who set aside our differences and just deal with it. We are called to be a people so united in voice, heart, and mission that when God looks at us, He would see one man. One voice. One heart. And that heart is a heart to worship (we will get to that in a second).
But Gideon doesn’t magically turn into some hero. He doesn’t go full Rambo mode. Throughout this entire story, Gideon is marked by fear. He asks for confirmation after confirmation from the Lord. Initially, Gideon had 32,000 men. God said that’s too many. Note: they were fighting the most powerful army in the world that is hundreds of thousands of men. Gideon tells anyone who is scared to leave. 22,000 leave and we get down to 10,000. Men who thought, “oh this will be fun. We can come together and train. We can think about what battle might look like, but we won’t ever actually have to do anything with that training.”
The truth in that is that following Jesus will NEVER look comfortable and easy. He will always call you into battle, not to just sit around and strategize about it. Then God says that 10,000 is still too many. He takes the army all the way down to 300 by revealing the men to keep by the way they drink water (a little weird, I know).
Next, God calls Gideon to go into the enemy’s camp at night. He even adds, “if you are afraid, go with your servant”. Want to know what’s crazy about this call? God says go down to the camp… but if you’re afraid, go down to camp anyways. The Lord’s strategy for people who are afraid is to call them to step into that fear. Sometimes, His call on our lives is to find what scares us the most and do it.
I think far too often we sit back and wait for the day when we no longer fear to say yes to His call. We think, “well if the Lord calls me to something, He will make me confident to do it… He will take away the fear… It will be somewhere where I feel comfortable… He will make me more skilled”. But that isn’t true. What He will do is call you to step through the fear… to share the Gospel even if your hands shake. Fear will never be completely gone. We actually need fear to keep us dependent on Him. The key is to step through the fear rather than letting fear drive decisions.
So, Gideon went down to the camp and overheard a dream being interpreted. One of the leaders of this Midianite army had this weird dream about a roll of bread destroying the camp. His servant immediately says, “Oh, that is none other than the mighty Gideon. The Lord will use his sword to destroy us.” Gideon leaves this camp and starts worshipping. Like what?!? Gideon is about to enter the battle of his life… the defining moment of everything he was created for… an absolutely impossible fight of 300 men vs thousands. And he starts worshipping in the face of this! In this moment, Gideon finally got it. God is FAITHFUL. If He promised it, it is as good as done… If God said it, it is only a matter of time. And the only real response that is required of us is to worship Him for it.
But Gideon still had to go and take what the Lord promised him. There is a key difference here between faith and entitlement. Faith will move you before it moves a mountain. Entitlement will cause you to sit back and wait for God to do everything for you. The Lord’s invitation on our lives is to join Him… not just sit back and play it safe. And we have to get to a point where we can simply make up our minds before that invitation comes. “God, my answer is yes. To whatever it is that you invite me into… no matter what it costs me… no matter where it takes me… my answer is yes, before I even know what it is that you are asking.”
Almost done. Promise.
The story continues and these 300 men walk into battle carrying 3 things. They are given a trumpet, and empty pitcher, and a torch. The trumpet would have been a symbol of unity for this group of soldiers. There was even a Jewish tradition for the Jewish New Year… it started with the festival of trumpets. The trumpets represented a unified start to 10 holy days that were set apart for the Lord.
Then the next 2 are the super beautiful part. These men lit torches and covered them with their empty pitchers. In one moment, these men broke their pitchers, revealed the fire underneath, blew their trumpets, and shouted the sword of the Lord. The Midianites were so terrified that they fled and Gideon’s army one. But do not miss the ridiculously beautiful imagery in that. The pitchers were completely worthless until they were broken. They did nothing to advance the kingdom until they were broken. The moment that they were broken, the fire underneath them was revealed.
Please hear me. To hide your brokenness is to hide your witness. The only way the fire of the Holy Spirit inside of you can ever be revealed is for you to be completely broken by the Gospel. The cross was not designed to just pardon the sinner. The cross was designed to KILL the sinner… to completely shift our identities from being sinners to being sons/daughters. Jesus didn’t just die on the cross so we wouldn’t have to. He died on the cross to show us how. A broken pitcher is the only thing that can ever reveal the fire inside of us. Do not hide your brokenness in shame. Jesus paid for those broken places. He bought them and wants to use them to reveal His glory. There is no plan B when it comes to our sin/shame. It will never be the blood of Jesus + anything. It is the blood of Jesus and the blood of Jesus alone. That He who knew know sin became sin for us… it will never be in our effort.
The last thing that these men brought to battle is the most important thing that they brought… they brought their voices. These men came together in unity and shouted… even after 31,700 men walked away, they were committed to using their voices to still accomplish the purpose of the Lord. Even in the face of impossible circumstances. Every other weapon can divide/kill, but their greatest weapon… their voices… had the ability to unite.
All of that to encourage/challenge you with the following:
- Simply say yes to the opportunities that the Lord puts in front of you… even if it calls you into something that terrifies you. Share the Gospel even if your hands and voice shake.
- If the circumstance looks impossible, get ready. The Lord has not brought you there to kill you but to amaze you… He uses impossible situations so that we can’t even try to take His glory… He will walk you into situations where there is no other explanation other than He showed up. On top of that, pray in a way that asks for that in boldness.
- Stop trying to hide your brokenness. It is the very place that the Lord wants to break through and reveal His glory. The flame that burns inside of you can only ever be revealed when we let ourselves be broken (just like the pitchers).
- Don’t sit back and wait in entitlement. Choose a heart of worship that seeks to see where He is moving. Simply join Him there, even if it terrifies you
Love y’all!
