You can watch a man curse Christ and spit on a Bible.
You can watch him mock you.
Laugh.
Dismiss it all.
And then one day, mid-sentence, the Spirit opens his eyes.
Paul is riding to kill Christians. By lunchtime, he’s blind and calling Jesus Lord.
Zodhiates hurls rocks at missionaries. By nightfall, he’s preaching the gospel.
Augustine lies on a garden bench, drunk with shame, and hears a child say, “Take up and read.” He picks up Romans. And everything breaks.
This is the Spirit’s work.
It cannot be mimicked.
It cannot be manufactured.
It happens in pews.
In jail cells.
On sidewalks.
In hospital beds.
It has happened to you, hasn’t it?
You didn’t get there by logic.
You didn’t get there by culture.
You didn’t get there by accident.
You got there because the Spirit found you.
Convicted you.
Stripped you.
And showed you a Christ so lovely, so sufficient, that you stopped arguing and started worshiping.
That is the Spirit’s signature: He makes Christ your treasure.
Just saw a video on Instagram that read “your ego will have you crying over a closed door that has nothing behind it”. What a word. Sometimes we can internalise rejection without realising the rejection was actually a favour to us!
start checking yourself. start correcting yourself when you’re being unnecessarily negative. start minding your business when you realize you’re policing someone’s choices that don’t have anything to do with you. hold yourself accountable for goals you keep procrastinating on
Every once in a while, a ewe will give birth to a lamb and reject it. If the lamb is returned to the ewe, the mother may even kick the poor animal away. Once a ewe rejects one of her lambs, she will never change her mind.
These little lambs will hang their heads so low that it looks like something is wrong with its neck. Their spirit is broken. These lambs are called “bummer lambs.”
Unless the shepherd intervenes, that lamb will die, rejected and alone. So, do you know what the shepherd does? He takes that rejected little one into his home, hand-feeds it and keep it warm by the fire. He will wrap it up with blankets and hold it to his chest so the bummer can hear his heartbeat.
Once the lamb is strong enough, the shepherd will place it back in the field with the rest of the flock. But that sheep never forgets how the shepherd cared for him when his mother rejected him.
When the shepherd calls for the flock, guess who runs to him first? That is right, the bummer sheep. He knows his voice intimately. It is not that the bummer lamb is loved more, it just knows intimately the one who loves it.
So many of us are bummer lambs, rejected and broken. But He is the good Shepherd. He cares for our every need and holds us close to His heart so we can hear His heart beat. We may be broken but we are deeply loved by the Shepherd.
From one bummer sheep to another… I love you! 📷
Your current situation is not permanent. It will pass. You will come out on top. Watch what happens for you. It will all seem supernatural, magical and unexplainable how you made it through. You’ll be in awe and filled with so much gratitude knowing that things really get better.
Black people are being gunned down at the grocery store. Asian Americans are being gunned down at Church. Little children are being gunned down at school. How can we fight terrorism abroad when we can’t even identify it in our own back yard. Call it what it is. TERRORISM.