Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Scared? Do It Anyway!


Some of the best "Kingdom Advice" I've ever received is, "DO IT SCARED." Pretty much everything I've done in my life that brought someone else's life closer to Christ, I did SCARED. Yup...pretty much EVERYTHING!

When God called me to teach His word in 2002, I thought He'd made a mistake. He couldn't have been serious when He told me to lead a women's bible study on my college campus during my LAST QUARTER before graduation. Really, God? He had it ALL WRONG! I was going to teach CHILDREN the Word and teach them dance. That was MY plan because I knew that's what I was created to do, and I knew I did it well. (I would teach children eventually, but it wasn't time.) I knew how to use dance as an avenue to teach children the Word of God, and I loved it! I had NO plans to teach my peers. None whatsoever!

Because my heart was so set on teaching children, I thought I couldn't teach my peers, so needless to say, I was scared. I didn't know what to do. I was in more shock and disbelief at first, but after I got over it because I KNEW what God had said, I was just scared. 

I knew He wanted that bible study, and I knew He wanted ME to lead it, and since He was the giver of the assignment, I knew I had to go to Him for direction...scared and all.

And that's exactly what He wanted. He wanted me to go to Him.

The last meeting with my bible study (most of them) before I graduated college. They were presented with purity rings after studying, that whole quarter, what it means to offer ourselves completely to the Lord--mind, body, and spirit.

God knew He'd called me to something that hadn't quite developed in me yet. He knew my heart was set on children. He knew I was scared to teach my peers because something like that was the farthest thing from my mind. But He also knew that that would be the best way to teach me to lean completely on Him.  I couldn't do it without Him. He told me what to do, but He wanted me to see that if He gave the assignment, He would have ALL of the instructions. I wouldn't be able to do even the first step without hearing from Him. I wouldn't be able to carry any of it out without His play-by-play guidance. What He'd called me to was so much bigger than me, and He wanted to teach me that I'm only the body He uses to get His work done in the earth. I MUST listen to Him for instructions in order to carry them out. Period.

And Lord, the many times He's told (and tells) me to speak directly to someone to either encourage them, or warn them, or help give them direction!!
IT.
IS.
SCARY.

One time, specifically, He gave me a dream about a young lady I was mentoring, and showed me that she was headed down the wrong path. I was scared out of my mind to tell her! I thought sure the girl would think I was crazy. But I knew God told me to tell her, and He'd shown me specific things that she KNEW I couldn't possibly have known. I had to lean on Him for the boldness to initiate the conversation. I had to pray for the way to say it. I had to get direction from Him and do it the way He said.

I did the bible study scared. I was scared when I had to tell little missy what God had shown me, and as I said before, there was a host of other things that I did with a shaking in my boots, but I had to "DO IT SCARED."  It caused me to lean on God in every step, and that's what He wanted. Had I thought I could do it and that I had everything under control, I would've been working in my own strength and would've pushed God aside, and surely, whatever I was "working on" would've probably been disastrous! It just doesn't make sense to go into the game without the coach's guidance.



Recently, a friend and I took a trip to Charleston, SC. When we discovered a few festivals were happening in surrounding cities that weekend, we made it a point to check them out.  The bridge that took us from Charleston to Mt. Pleasant, SC was BEAUTIFUL, but boy was it SCARY! I've driven a lot of places over a lot of high bridges, but this one was a different kind of high, and approaching it, I must admit, made me shift in my seat a bit. I put a little extra grip on my steering wheel, sat up straighter, and purposed to look directly in front of me. It's like I had to retrain my mind, in that instant, to not focus on the height and structure of the beams above the actual bridge, but to simply focus on driving and keeping my eyes on the road ahead of me. And the Holy Spirit began to speak.

He reminded me of what it means to "DO IT SCARED".  He reminded me of the bible study and the dream and all the other scary instances that forced me to look to Him for direction. He reminded me that I can't look at the size of "the bridge", but that I need only focus on what's directly in front of me and just keep driving. When He gives me my first instruction on an assignment, I have to do that and wait on the next. Then, when He gives me the next one or so, and I have to do those. I just have to keep driving. If I look at the size of "the bridge" or think about all of the components of the assignment, surely I'll be afraid and stop in my tracks because it will look too big!


Even now, as I'm planning one of the biggest projects Praise Movement School of Dance has seen in its 9 years, I have to keep telling myself, "Don't look at the bridge. Just drive." Every day, I have to say it. As God gives me instruction for one piece of the assignment, I work on that, and that piece leads to the next, and that will keep happening as I just drive until I eventually end up at the destination.

Has God given you some Kingdom Building assignment that looks and feels a little scary?  You're not alone. His assignments ARE usually bigger than us, and that's exactly why we need Him. It's His work; we're just the bodies that He uses to get the work done. Don't look at the size of the assignment. Don't look at its make up. Just look to Him who knows every detail of the plan. Get your instruction from Him, and just drive...scared and all.

2 comments:

  1. WOOOOOWWW! AND looks who is sitting front and center "little miss Missy" with her used to be mad at the world self. My my I sure thank God you did it scared that time. I just might still be in the clubs and beds...BUT GOD!

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    1. Umph, umph, umph! So glad He runs the show and completely takes over when we hear Him and LISTEN! He was pursuing your heart and wouldn't let me rest until you surrendered. I love His ways! And what a return He's gotten on your surrender! I'm so glad to call you my friend, my sister, my spiritual seed. It's hard to even remember starting that way, isn't it? I love you!

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