18: Really Ministering
and Breaking Molds
Growing up in churches, I was always known as a “good ” and was content with wearing the “Christian mask,” also known as respectability. I was prepared to graduate high school, go to college and be trained to minister as a musician. But, God has a way of shaking things up.
Just before I graduated from high school, one of my church friends began to question the roots of his faith. He too had been raised in the churches, but was now wondering if going to church, attending Christian rock concerts and wearing T-shirts with cute Christian slogans on them was all there was to following Jesus. I was getting a little nervous about his desire to dig deeper into real Christian faith. Then my friend asked me if I could really be happy with a lukewarm life.
At that point, I realized that I had to be honest with myself and with God. I either had to stop using God and church as an excuse to live for myself by no longer calling myself a Christian, or I needed to find out what being a Christian really meant. I had to learn that going to college to make a career out of singing songs about God was probably not what Jesus meant when he said “Take up your cross and follow me.”
I hadn’t previously considered doing the more radical things that Jesus said because I didn’t think that anyone was doing them anymore, because the days of the first century church had passed. Besides, I thought, “going out into the world to preach the Gospel” without a college degree and funding from a big church was impossible!
But God showed me, right when I needed, that there are people who try to live the simple life of faith and love that Jesus taught, and there are people who believe Jesus when He says that God will provide for us without the support of a religious or governmental institution. True faith means reaching out and knowing that God is on your side without having to trust a paycheck or a church to keep you safe.
Jesus said that you need to give up everything, spiritually and materially, to be a disciple of His. I had always been taught that I must be willing to do that, but I now wondered, “If I am really willing to do it, why don’t I just do it?”
God gives back in unpredictable blessings when we give to Him what was His in the first place. I had grown up thinking that I was poor, but when I took Jesus seriously about selling my possessions and truly trusting in His provision, I saw how rich I was and still am. I am learning how it is more blessed to be giving my life instead of always being the one receiving.
I began to see that there was much more to life than my sterile little church mold, as I have been learning true faith from former atheists, former addicts and even other former luke-warm churchgoers. I was amazed at the diversity of backgrounds and nationalities of people who are now working together to serve God.
We all had one thing in common to bring us here: God had showed us all that Jesus was not what we had expected Him to be and that His words rang true where nothing else fulfilled. For me, it was that Jesus’ life and teachings were and are not conventional and definitely not mediocre. I am learning to break out of the mold.
YES! nice one whoever.
ReplyDeleteI love breaking the mold.
I especially like how she said you don't need to go to college to serve Jesus. yay!