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**Update** The Whole Woman Show

Posted on Apr 11, 2013 | 0 comments

**Update** If you weren’t able to join us live last Thursday, you can listen to our conversation HERE.

Today from 11:00-12:00 EST, I’m joining my dear friend and mentor, Lisa Shaw, on her online radio show The Whole Woman. We’d love for you to join us as we chat about Jesus and living upside-down for Him. If you can’t join us live, our time together will be recorded and I’ll send out the link to the podcast when it’s available.

 

Paused Applause

Posted on Mar 4, 2013 | 2 comments

They sit on the stage together, a young married couple, the pastor to their left. Their children, one girl and one boy, are little. In a few short months they’ll make their home in a different land, surrounded by a different people group, learning and speaking a different language. They tell their story; how they’ve sold worldly possessions, given away treasures, rid themselves of the “American dream” and said ‘yes’ to their Jesus calling.

I sit and listen, nodding and smiling and even wiping away tears as they share how God has paved this way for them. They ask for support and prayers, and corporately we, the church, agree to lift prayers to the throne for their family, for their mission, for their Jesus calling.

Their time of sharing concludes and we pray and applaud their ‘yes’. But, my applause of support and encouragement becomes paused. And I drop my hands onto my lap and wonder, “Am I doing enough for Jesus? Am I saying ‘yes’ to my Jesus calling?”

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He stands, the preacher’s son, beside his dad, the preacher. And this preacher-dad tells us how proud he is of his son. He tells us of the years of wilderness roaming his son traveled and of the place in which God has now brought him. I sit up straighter in my seat. My eyes, they spill over with tears. I’ve lived this preacher’s son’s story; the preacher’s daughter who chose her own way, who spent many years wandering through wilderness lands.

This redeemed wilderness traveler, he spent some time in a foreign land, and now he’s going to do it again he tells us…this time for Jesus. For eleven months he’ll make his home in eleven different lands, ministering to different people groups, learning and speaking different languages.

Their time of sharing concludes and we pray for this preacher’s son, we commission him, and we applaud his ‘yes’. But, my applause of support and encouragement becomes paused. And I drop my hands onto my lap and wonder, “Am I doing enough for Jesus? Am I saying ‘yes’ to my Jesus calling?”

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I flip through the mail and stop when I see her smiling face. She sent us a prayer postcard. She’s traveling to a different land this summer, to minister to a people group different from her own, and she’ll learn to speak a different language in order to tell others of Jesus’ love. My heart swells with pride. She’s not my own, but I’m so very proud of the young Jesus-loving lady she’s becoming. She’s saying ‘yes’ to her Jesus calling, pursuing Him on this trip, seeking out His plans for her life.

I place her prayer postcard in my Bible so that I’ll remember to pray for her daily. And this is what I pray: wisdom for God’s leading into this ripe field of missions, boldness to speak Truth to those He places in her path, a compassionate heart to meet the hurting in their pain, willing hands to serve those in need, the eyes of Jesus to see into the lives of those who live in silence, ears to hear words not spoken, tenderness to know the Spirit’s leading, and above all an obedient heart to follow hard after Jesus.

I send her an email telling her how excited I am for her and how I have no doubt God has great plans for her life. I encourage her to continue to seek God’s face in all things. I tell her I love her, I thank her for the privilege to pray for her, and I applaud her ‘yes’.

But, my applause of support and encouragement becomes paused. And I drop my hands onto my lap where my Bible sits open, a prayer postcard staring up at me and I wonder, “Am I doing enough for Jesus? Am I saying ‘yes’ to my Jesus calling?”

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I listen to all these stories and many others; stories of those adopting, of those digging wells for the thirsty, of those organizing food drives for the hungry, and of those nursing the sick. I applaud them all, really I do. But, I drop my hands and I wonder, “Am I doing enough for Jesus? Am I saying ‘yes’ to my Jesus calling?”

Maybe I’m the only one who looks at others and thinks that my doing isn’t enough. Maybe…but I doubt it. I think we all suffer from paused applause; the applause of praise paused because we wonder, “Am I doing enough for Jesus? Am I saying ‘yes’ to my Jesus calling?”

What I’ve come to understand and embrace is this: God has created us all uniquely different and called us each to a different ‘yes’. And He’s asking each of us to drop our hands, not in paused applause, but in total surrender. Surrender to do whatever, wherever, and however. A surrendered ‘yes’ life lived in such a way that results in a world turned upside down for Jesus. Our ‘yeses’ aren’t the same; they can’t be compared. My living out my Jesus ‘yes’ can only be lived out to its fullest by me, no one else. And the same goes for you; only you can live out your Jesus ‘yes’.

So, am I doing enough for Jesus? Are you doing enough for Jesus? If we’re dropping our hands in surrender, saying ‘yes’ to our Jesus calling—whether that ‘yes’ is doing (again) the same Monday morning mountain of laundry, washing a sink full of dirty dishes, changing dirty diapers and wiping runny noses, loving on and encouraging a woman who just lost her spouse, cheering on the couple who want to end their marriage, preparing dinner for a family agonizing over a wayward child, listening to a recovering addict tell their story, chatting and laughing with a lesbian or gay friend over coffee, spending a Saturday at the homeless shelter playing card games with the homeless—whatever our ‘yes’ is, then we’re absolutely doing enough for Jesus and our applause for others should never become paused because we’re all fulfilling our kingdom purpose.

For we are the product of His hand, heaven’s poetry etched on lives, created in the Anointed, Jesus, to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago.

Ephesians 2:10, the Voice