Yelling in a Subway…

Yelling in a Subway

I write this a couple of days after the incident. We were in Rome and stuck in the halls of the subway station waiting for a strike to end. We were crammed in and waiting for the gates to open so that we could line up and push into the actual train.

It’s a large place and it was fairly quiet. Every so often there was an announcement as to what was going on with the ending of the strike… how much longer or something. Spoken in Italian                                                                      

 

While standing in the crowd I hear God say, “Yell, Jesus Christ is Lord.”

WHAT? I was like… no way. I immediately got nauseous, knowing in the pit of my stomach I was either to obey or not. My hands got tingly and I knew what was going on.

He said, “You say you’ll yell from the rooftops but you can’t yell in a subway?”

Matthew 10:27

²⁷What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.

Ugh. Yes I thought. You’re right… as usual… how often I have said I’d proclaim Your Name from the rooftops…

I will not be silent. (again Psalm 30 speaks to me…)

Psalm 30:12

 ¹² that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
       O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.

I thought to myself… if I’d be willing to be on TV and declare that Jesus Christ is Lord… why not in a subway?

…the reason why not, is because I am safe away from people and their reactions on the rooftop, safe behind the screen of a TV. Here I am crowded by and touching the people I am being asked to yell to. I thought what if someone wants to beat me up… what if someone gets pissed. 

But I knew God wouldn’t tell me to do something He wouldn’t protect me through. (I am reminded now of that saying “if God calls you to it, He’ll see you through it.” SO TRUE have I come to find out this year…)

Not to mention I fear God over man. I would rather be disliked by man for my obedience to God, rather than grieve the heart of God for their approval.

I knew that He wanted His Name proclaimed and wanted it to land on their ears. Maybe it diverted some people’s thoughts to then think of Him… at least His Name crossed their minds… and hopefully settled into their souls…

I don’t know what He wanted to have come of it… I just know He asked me to do it… told me… and I had a choice. Again… I had a choice.

I prayed… I asked Anna who was standing next to me if this had ever happened to her… and told her what God was telling me to do… she smiled and was sweet.

A man next to me saw me praying and asked if I was Catholic or Orthodox. I said no. He didn’t speak English… and I told him I was about to yell something… yell, Jesus Christ is Lord. I don’t know if he understood me… but I told him anyway.

Fools for Christ – I was reminded by Him – I am a SPECTACLE…

1 Corinthians 4:9-13

⁹For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! ¹¹To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. ¹²We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; ¹³when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.

I told God… “Ok, when the gates open I will yell.”

The gates opened… people started pushing forward and I yelled as loud as I could,

”  JESUS   CHRIST  IS  LORD !  “

I heard some clapping or something… and was pushed into the subway. I was shaking with frazzled nerves and felt God say, “Thank You.”

And I breathed with a sigh of relief, nerves calming, but knowing this wouldn’t be the last time I am going to be challenged in this way. Until then… I wait upon Him.