Never Say Never... Or Do. (God'll Have a Good Laugh!)
Ok, let’s play a game. The category is “Things you said you’d never do.” I’ll go first…
I said I’d never leave my teaching career
I said I’d never eat goat cheese or avocados
I said I’d never have more than three kids
I said I’d never never own a minivan
I said I’d never do anything that dealt with social media other than post pics for my family
And now, if you look at me, I’m just a non-teaching-goat-cheese-avocado-loving-mother-of-four-minivan-driving-multi-national-social-media-group-leader. Wow, what a mouthful! But in all seriousness, what are the flippin’ odds that all these things I said I’d never do are now my life? God has a sense of humor. As I sit in my chair, here at my desk, I’m often reminded of the statement my boss-buddy-mentor-friend, Putty Putman, once said: “Be careful what you say you’ll never do; you may just be called to it.” I laugh and cry a little at this thought all at the same time, because… truth be told, my life looks NOTHING like I thought it would. It’s one thing to have my palette mature and become a foodie, It’s not even THAT big of a deal that I now am the not-so-proud owner of a Chrysler Pacifica (thank you, twins), but I mean, I would’ve bet my entire savings on #5 not coming to fruition.
Anyone who knows me knows I have a passionate aversion to social media, because if I’m being completely raw with you all, I still blame the social media culture for the dramatic plummet of my marriage 5ish years ago. Without going into too many details, I’ll just say the culture of worshipping the beautiful, seemingly-perfect people, dancing with the line of appropriateness, and saying/doing things through a screen you’d never do in person landed my family on the brink of divorce, not once, not twice, but three times. However, not to worry. I’m happy to report that God redeems, we are stronger today for everything we’ve gone through, and now God is using our story to minister to other marriages on the regular. I LOVE what God can do with a mess; I LOVE how He doesn’t waste your pain and how your cooperation with HIS plan can change everything.
I guess that’s my point in all this. You see, I never wanted to engage in social media because I didn’t believe it could change. I thought it was just a sick world that was too far gone and promoted all the wrong things in life. I recognized it’s power but didn’t think to stop and ask God what HIS plan was for “this mess”, if it was redeemable. So, a year ago, when my boss asked me to add this On the Journey Facebook Group to the platform and to take care of this community, well… you can imagine my inner turmoil.
But, God.
You see, when all I could see was the yuck, God saw the potential. When I kept asking “Why me?” God gently prodded back with “How could I use anyone else?” And yeah, that gave me pause. I had to ask Him to elaborate on that, and of course, He did. He reminded me of my pain; He reminded me that it was His pain too. …and then, like how they do in the movies, where all of a sudden, they zoom way out and you see this great landscape and perspectives shift, He showed me: This online world was what the enemy intended to use for destruction. So many hurting souls dealing with bullying, rejection, addiction, comparison, jealousy, etc. He had a plan—to redeem it, to turn a place where people currently unite over common perspectives and common hatred into a place where people celebrate different perspectives and learn from each other, all the while encouraging and equipping each other. Of course, my reaction to this was “Go, God! You do that… I’ll just be over here.”
Yeah, we both had a good laugh at that.
So, here I am one morning, just getting ready for another day, listening to a podcast by Kris Valloton called “Cultural Transformation.” And he’s weeping as he talks about Elon Musk and how he’s solving the world’s problems because he believed he could, that so many of us just believe we’re too small to make a difference, to shift culture. And Elon isn’t even a believer. He goes on to challenge us to imagine a world where people who regularly partner with GOD could have this kind of belief in themselves to solve the world’s problems. …This. Got. Me. I partner with God. I think I’m too small. I see big problems. I don’t believe they will change. And then God swoops in and says “That’s why I’ve called you to change it. Because you SEE the problems, because you feel the pain I feel, and you can help me create a space that looks different.” I cried all morning. Partially in disbelief that God actually wanted to work through me in this way, and partially because I needed to repent for not believing in Him to have a plan.
I realized from here on out, I needed to cooperate with His plan. Give Him my next “yes” no matter what that looked like, and believe that He can do it. The way I look at it, I can be a part of the adventure or on the sidelines. Either way, He’ll do it because He’s God. So, here we are, folks. Just a Jesus-loving community, going after all that God has for us. But, I’d be remiss if I didn’t end this post today saying that simply being IN this community is something that’s pretty special. God is doing something. He has a plan for transforming the social media culture (and more!). YOU are invited to be part of that. He wants to use us, and that’s pretty cool. There are lots of groups on Facebook, lots of churches with resourcing and equipping emails, but the unity and interconnectedness He’s breathing on THIS group of people…. I don’t know, it feels unique, like something brand new.
This is what God says, the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path through pounding waves, The God who summons horses and chariots and armies— they lie down and then can’t get up; they’re snuffed out like so many candles: “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands. Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’ —the coyotes and the buzzards— Because I provided water in the desert, rivers through the sun-baked earth, Drinking water for the people I chose, the people I made especially for myself, a people custom-made to praise me.” —Isaiah 43:16-21
Ashton Harwood
The Vineyard Church
Urbana IL