The Answer?...

When Hubs and I were away at the Encounter More conference at Causeway Coast Vineyard last week, I flicked over the page of my notebook to continue my frantic scribblings of the inspiring talk, only to be faced with another strange couple of scribbles on my blank page! It seems that, at some point past, one of my offspring (who shall remain nameless to save their blushes) was practising their soon-to-be-married signature in my nice blank-at-the-time book! Awww - how CUTE!

I quickly drew a box round each attempt in order to preserve them for posterity, and continued my own scribbles. I opened the page again this evening to review the notes I had made (Hope you are impressed with that act alone!) and saw the signatures. It made me think about identity. Mine. Ours. Children of God. Each chosen. Each unique and individual

With those practised signatures, my Sweetie was anticipating a change in her identity when she became a wife. Her name would change. Her role would change. Her life would change and she would have someone else, more than her own self to consider, in decisions she would make from that day on. Her relationship with me, her Momma, would shift in its ranking in her life. (Though I still maintain the truth that I have told all my Sweeties, 'You will find someone you love more than me but they will never love you as much as I do.') Another piece of Momma-advice I gave was that every person we meet - however brief that time may be - is an opportunity to change that person's life and we should try to make that change a good one by what we say or how we treat them.  

To get back to the conference, the notes I was looking through were to do with seeing God at work in my home community and two quotes stood out to me at this point by Julian Adams and Tre Sheppard respectively...

(for 'I', read yourself)...

"I am the answer my community is looking for"

"I am the Director of Hope in my city"

These statements may sound outrageous and presumptuous at first. 

Little old me? The Answer? The Director of Hope? 

Yes! Because the truth is, when we have the Holy Spirit in all His fullness living in us, with Jesus' promise that we will do the same as Him and even greater things, we bring something extraordinary with our lives and our presence into all the places we go. We ARE the fragrance of Christ and carry His glory. We change atmospheres because of our relationship with the living, loving, Almighty God. My choices in each interaction breathes hope, healing and life into others. The way I do it will fit the way God has made me - though I may also cross a comfort zone or two along the way.

Tre adds, " Be the God-flavour in areas that have lost their taste for God."

I love that. In choosing to believe that my relationship with Jesus changes me, I change life for others too. I may not FEEL that I carry the fragrance of Jesus, but I DO! He looms large in the small things that I do. He still looms large in the big steps I take 'over my edge'. The glory is always His.

Whilst I still do go into a coffee shop just to have a quiet drink, sometimes I purposefully ask Jesus if there is anyone there that day He wants to speak to through me; sometimes I meander mindlessly along the road or I can talk to Jesus about the street and pray change along it every step of my way; I can pack my groceries in silence or I can strike up a cheery conversation with the checkout server - maybe adding a drink and snack to my shopping to pass to the Big Issue seller outside. I am learning to listen for God to tell me things about folk that only He knows in order to tell it back to them so that they realise there is a loving God that cares intimately about them. I can choose to look sympathetically at a person passing by with an obvious ailment or step out in faith and pray believing prayers for healing with the authority that Jesus passed on. It's all part of the appointment given, the adventure of being the Answer or the Director of Hope in the place where I am at a moment in time - living my life in the different way of living that is called for in  this committed relationship.

If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space

Jim Whittaker