Interrupted: PHASE ONE

"I couldn't have been more floored if I'd come home to find Jesus Himself making salsa in my kitchen."

-Jen Hatmaker, Interrupted (page 39)

Week 1 of The Leslie Galema Unofficial Book Club 


Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker

Have you ever felt God ask you to do something that you felt like you were already doing?

In Phase One of this book Jen (and her husband, Brandon) write about her experience with God impressing on her heart to "feed his sheep."

We have all be there.

Those moments when we feel like there is more to what we are doing...Sometimes we get busy doing the WHAT we do and forget WHY we do it.

Can I get an amen?

Amen!

In her case, it was the church and how they were doing it.

I love what she writes on page 30:

"..I basically considered the church campus-Sunday morning the entry level-as the location and means to transform the average seeker into a believer.  In other words, if you need something spiritual, some help, some guidance, understanding, then come to us. We'll build it, and you come. Once you do, we will pour out our lives attempting to disciple you and build spiritual health into your life. My husband Brandon and I spend every waking moment with Christians.

We were servants of the weekend attendees."

Well dang.

She recalls praying for God to raise up in her a Holy Passion thinking that she meant "God, give me happy feelings" and not for an intervention that would require anything of her!

She felt drawn to John 21 when Peter declared his love for Jesus three times after His resurrection.

Like Peter, Jen was stunned by what Jesus was asking her.  Hadn't she been pouring herself into "Jesusy" things at church?  Hadn't she been planning small group discussions, sermons, and writing books about God's love?

Jen, if you love me, feed my sheep. (John 21:17)

It was then she realized what Jesus meant.  She saw her reflection in Peter: devoted but selfish, committed but misguided.

And deciding that's not going to be good enough.

"I meant well" is note going to cut it-not with God screaming, pleading, urging us to love mercy and justice and feed the poor and the orphaned, to care for the last and the least in nearly every book of the Bible.

  
TALK TANK:

What is the purpose of the local church?
 ...and what does that mean for YOU personally?

The Leslie Galema Unofficial Book Club

Join me, every Friday this September for my very first

Unofficial Book Club

Study of Jen Hatmaker's book:  Interrupted





Week 1: Friday, August 29    PHASE ONE
Week 2: Friday, September 5  PHASE TWO
Week 3: Friday, September 12  PHASE THREE
Week 4: Friday, September 19 PHASE FOUR
Week 5: Friday, September 26 PHASE FIVE

The Law of The Referee

I am not a big sports fan-but something I have noticed about referees is that not many actually like them. 

Why?

Well, I think it is because they don't actually play the game. It seems to me they just blow their whistles and point out when players have done something wrong.

We all have "referees" in our lives.  You know, those people in our lives who don't actually know us, but think they do and seem to delight in pointing out everything they think we do wrong....

Nobody likes a referee.

I used to think that I was being held back professionally by someone else's ego.

The frustration, the hurt, the sadness, and disappointment often felt suffocating.

Anger and bitterness became tension I carried around like a hot, wet blanket.

I poured and stirred gallons of effort to prove myself worthy- thinking that if everyone else could see how much I cared, then someone would fight for me.

The more I tried, the more misunderstood I was.  What was meant to be seen as passion and energy for the organization was taken as overbearing and questioning of authority.

Painful lesson, after lesson showed me that no amount of energy or earned popularity would get me far enough with my referee.

I was peddling 100 miles a minute on bike that never moved.

What seemed like common sense became uncommon sense.

All rational thinking was out the window.

 I had fouled out.

I was bad news-a loose cannon.  Too radical and pushy.

I felt black balled.

Inferior.

Offended.

Slap after slap, kick after kick, I was wounded but oddly, not tired. I still had the energy and the hope that God wanted to use me.

I decided I was going to leverage this space in time to ask hard questions about myself to trusted mentors.  What frustrated me most was  my referee was blind to how they were coming off.  It was like they had no self awareness.

I decided that I would be self aware.  Even if it broke my heart, I was going to ask those around me to give it to me straight-by telling me what I most needed to work on and how I could better see myself.

If anything good were to come from this hurtful situation, it would be that I would grow!


I refused to be the victim!

 Because I was "unqualified " to work at the job I wanted, I found myself at home with free time.

I was fueled by the hope that I had in what God could do in my life long term. God began stirring in me, the dream of "what if!?"


 In the midst of brokenness and bright flashing stop lights at what seemed like every turn....
God was actually giving green lights in other ways-I just didn't notice them yet.
I began to see my hard work pay off with opportunities opening to reach a larger community than the current  "gag order" that I felt sentenced to.

I wondered why I was empowered by this huge area of influence that saw my potential and gave me a voice, but the smaller area of influence that I had been rejected by, saw me as a nuisance?

The good slowly began to drown out the bad.

The once loud ego driven "referee" who blew their whistle and pointed out my fouls, was now drowned out by the cheers of those who believed that I am not defined by one person's ideas of me.


Now, I can see that God was using my brokenness to fuel my passion.

 I don't know if I believe that God used this referee in my life to teach me a lesson, but I do know that God leveraged my reactions of it to help me see that I am not in charge..and that his ways are bigger and better than my ways.

Let's all be life long learners instead of victims, and STOP listening to the referees.



C.S. Lewis once said:

Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.


.. or, what Britt Nicole says.

FUNNY FRIDAY

I never thought that it would be bedhead that brought me attention... but  I was wrong.

TODAY SHOW online




Fame has gone to my head...


see what I did there?

#iwokeuplikethis

ORANGE ya glad!?

Last month, I lead a 4 week study through the book Make Believe by Ben Crawshaw and Kevin Ragsdale for orangeleaders.com

Check it out here:  BOOK STUDY  Week 1





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