A few months ago, I remember hearing a woman who is so full of life and spontaneity share during our daily devotions “It’s difficult to find how God used women in the Bible.” I remember this moment so clearly because I was questioning this same question in my own life.
Then I realized there are a ton of women in scripture; but we look past them because of their imperfections, because of their flaws, because of the rawness of their lives. “Why do we look past these stories so quickly?”
I have honestly struggled answering this question until I shared part of my testimony with my church on Sunday. I was standing on the stage with lights beaming so brightly I couldn’t see the front row of people. I honestly had never been truly raw with a large group of people. I had done it with small groups and with close friends but not with a large group of people on stage with a microphone to make sure every word is heard.
In a moment of complete isolation with many eyes watching me and just as many years hearing my flaws and failures, I was completely at peace. No matter how many scars or in my case how many idols are unmasked; true beauty is revealed through Jesus entering our story and completely transforming the way we pursue our lives.
As I have walked away from that experience, I realize I live in a world where I have spent the last month detoxing myself from the mirror and my hair appliances in preparation for the next 11 months.
Reality Check! I have been covering up blemishes and masking the identity God created in me, I have shielded my testimony because there wasn’t a dramatic transformation.
“Wow!” “If I’m not intentionally pursuing Him and listening to His truths about my life, my story becomes about me and that isn’t what our stories are about.”
Jesus entering any story creates true transformation. The Bible is full of women encountering Jesus and being completely transformed. My favorite is the Samaritan Woman. She would walk to the well during the hottest part of the day, to avoid the scorching pain of others’ rejection and judgment. She had been married five times, and now she was living with a man who wasn’t her husband.
Jesus enters her life perfectly, He timed it so that He would run into her.
He pursued the Samaritan woman with His perfect love. He asked her for the only thing she had, water.
She let Him speak words of assurance and acceptance into the broken, insecure, and empty places of her heart.
For the next 11 months, if that is the task God presents in me to speak words of assurance, and acceptance into the broken, insecure, and empty places of others hearts all of the sacrifices that have been made will have been worth it.
I’m so excited to start this journey, in just a week from tomorrow I will be heading to Nepal. Although today has shown me I have a week full of hard moments saying “see you later” to the life in Kentucky, where God completely transformed my desires and plans; every normalcy will be let go of in the next seven days. Although, today has been the first of these days and it has not been easy.
I am doing it to answer this call in my life. To make a difference for others that radiates Jesus transforming my story. That is why I feel called to the race. To see God’s name lifted high, to encourage the hurt and the broken and to remind everyone to draw close to Him. Because He really truly does care about each and everyone of His children.
