The phrase “She Said Yes!” automatically brings to mind pictures of excited smiles and sparkly new rings and Facebook updates with hundreds of likes. We know, when we hear this exclamation, that the question she said yes to was “Will you marry me?” He has popped the question, and because she said yes, their lives will change forever.
But the yes a woman says to a man on bended knee isn’t the only yes she ever says. It isn’t the only yes that matters. It isn’t the only yes that determines the course of her life.
Our lives are made up by what or whom we say yes to.
I am on the race because God asked me if I was willing to go around the world to experience Him in a new way and I said yes.
I am enjoying my community on the race, despite my initial fears, because I said yes to trust and love and vulnerability.
I have been with Grant for over three years because I have said yes, more times than not, to trust and forgiveness and selflessness and love.
The more painful experiences in my life were usually a result of my saying yes as well.
Guilt and shame came when I said yes to temptation and sin and selfishness rather than the Holy Spirit’s strength and guidance and grace.
Drawn out heartache came when I said yes again and again to relationships God asked me to release.
Confusion and hopelessness came when I said yes to those whispers of doubt and suspicion and anger that the enemy whispered in my ear.
It’s true that life throws us things we never asked for or agreed to– tragic deaths, layoffs at work, unexpected pregnancies, blindsiding diagnoses. We don’t say yes to those things, but we say yes to how we respond.
A man from my church in Camden was recently diagnosed with cancer. He didn’t ask for that.
But he didn’t say yes to blaming God or giving up. He said yes to glorifying God, experiencing new levels of love from the community, and soaking up every moment he gets with his family.
I’ve only seen this take place from a distance (halfway around the world to be precise), but his trusting, resounding, hopeful YES is reverberating so loudly that I can hear it in Africa.
You see, the situations we face aren’t nearly as important as the “yes”s we make.
God is looking for men and women willing to say
yes to risk,
yes to trust,
yes to giving,
yes to vulnerability,
yes to fearless love,
yes to obedience,
yes to forgiving,
yes to Him.
You are where you are because of the times you’ve said yes. What were you saying yes to?
Have you said yes to protecting your heart with walls too high and thick for others to break through?
Have you said yes to the safe choice to avoid the risk, ignoring the pull to do something greater?
Have you said yes to finding security in your income rather than the Creator of all and the Giver of every good gift?
or
Have you said yes to loving others even when they don’t deserve it as Christ first loved you?
Have you said yes to using your time and money to glorify God and bring the Kingdom to the dark places on earth?
Have you said yes to using your story and voice to let others know that they aren’t too far from God’s love, that they’re not alone?
God is asking for a yes. Are you listening?
He is asking you to trust.
He is asking you to follow.
He is asking you to surrender.
He is asking you to hope.
He is asking you to love.
Will you say yes?
Don’t forget our challenge! Now it’s your turn. Get out there and find a way to use your voice to encourage, uplift, and challenge someone else. Share your story. Change the world around you.
