Can U Imagine?
For some reason this thought came to my mind today. I think it was a result of my mind still processing our team’s mission trip to the Islands of Abaco and the Grand Bahamas. There were so many moments on the trip that I felt God was whispering in my ear or looking at me through the eyes of people and yea even a fish.
God crossed so many amazing people across my path. There was a Bahamian pastor and his wife who I spoke with while waiting on a plane in Ft. Lauderdale. There was a nice Korean lady who sat next to me on the plane. She was visiting her brother-in-law. There were countless young men and women who I felt compassion and the desire to share Jesus love with. There were so many people who joyfully served us and treated us with such respect and made us feel so welcome. There was Martha and her husband who owned the food truck ‘Martha’s Kitchen’ on the beach that blessed me with extra food including lobster tail and conk critters. I had only ordered jerk chicken, but my new friends felt the need to show me additional love and hospitality. God seemed to be placing person after person in my path as divine appointments as the Holy Spirit guided every step of the way.
On my way home, during a long layover at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale, I considered taking an uber to the beach to find a local food dive to eat, but while sitting on the bench outside the airport, a young college softball coach sat down next to me. After our crazy cool conversation, I knew God had not put the thought of catching an uber in my mind to find a local food dive, He wanted me to share some of His food with this young coach who He has great plans for. She was searching for a few answers and I was just the messenger with plenty of experiences and testimonies to share. I challenged her to dream bigger and to take her imagination and her expectations of God to a whole new level – THE IMPOSSIBLE!
I could write all day about each of these individuals and so many more amazing people I met, but I want to take you back to the thought I had when beginning this post.
Can you imagine?
Can you imagine living a life without any adversity?
Can you imagine never being bullied?
Can you imagine never failing?
My first thought ‘Life sure would have been better without any of that’. I would have loved to have never been bullied or dealt with all the failures growing up. Heck I would love never failing right now!
It was at that moment that God hit me with a “Are you sure about that”. Kind of a “It’s a Wonderful Life” moment, where George Bailey wishes he had never been born.
I am who I am today, because of the adversity, bullying, and failures. Did God cause them or just allow the adversity to come my way? I know God does not kill, steal, or destroy and that He can turn all thing for our good. Trying to understand or figure out His ways are simply not for me to wrestle. Fact is His ways are better than my ways. I know some day all sickness, sin, and evil will be gone and we will be able to enjoy experiencing a new heaven. I can only imagine that day, but what I have come to know without a doubt is that considering adversity pure joy is the only path to a better life on earth.
It is for this reason that bullying, failure, and even the death of a loved one does not cause my faith to waiver, not at all, instead it spurs me on to great things that my Father has in store for me. Fear, anxiety, depression, nor even death can steal my passion or my joy.
Yea, I can imagine and matter of fact, I have crazy powerful vision. My King tells me that through His Strength and Spirit, I can do even greater things than He did. He tells me that no weapon formed against me can prosper. He tells me that greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world. He tells me I can do all things (which includes the impossible) through Him who gives me strength. Bullies will come and go, but nothing in heaven or earth can stop my Jesus from loving me and someday soon taking me to the place He is preparing for me. He desires nothing more than to do the same for you.
All you have to do is turn and follow Jesus, ask Him to forgive you of your sins, publicly confess your faith for Him, and have the faith of a child. He sent a helper (THE HELPER), to empower (STRENGTH BEYOND MEASURE), and to guide and comfort you through all the adversity on earth. WE ARE TALKING THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR. The Holy Spirit versus the spirit of fear – there has never been a greater mismatch.
Jesus is calling you to go and share the good news with the lost. As I found out all summer, there is nothing more gratifying than doing just that.