You have to brave with
your life so that others can be brave with theirs. ~Katherine Center
This is my eighth year living in Africa. It’s been incredible and hard and
awesome. So many people call me brave. I’ve
written before (here) that my brave isn’t living in a foreign country and
culture; my brave is admitting mistakes I’ve made, or asking for help, or pushing
through the doubt and fear and lonely and connecting with others.
This year I’ll be leading an open community group aboard the
AFM.
This isn’t a closed group of friends that I know well that
will be journeying together. I’d
honestly rather it was. That’s comfortable,
for me. And what I have done the last
several years. So when I was asking God
what my involvement would look like in small groups this year (as my entire
small group from the last few years has left) it was so clear to me that an
open small group was it.
People can come and go as their work schedules allow. People brand new on the ship with no friends
yet are welcome alongside people who have been here longer than I have. I know that the ship can be a desperately
lonely place, and I know if I feel that I am not the only one.
What is my role in this?
Well, I will tell you what it isn’t.
It isn’t up to me to create spiritual experiences for people. It isn’t up to me to draw people closer to
the heart of God. It isn’t up to me to
make sure people hear from God. It isn’t
up to me to gather a whole big group. It
isn’t up to me to speak to the depths of people’s hearts. It isn’t up to me to try to fill the room or
make people cry or get anyone to say how awesome I am. It’s not even my job to try to be awesome.
My role, what I have been called to do is this: create a safe,
encouraging space for people to connect to others at a heart level beneath the
surface. To start a conversation about
what walking with God looks like. And to
encourage authenticity and vulnerability, by being authentic and
vulnerable.
Brene Brown is one of my favorite author-researchers, and
she says in The Gifts of Imperfection:
If authenticity is my goal and I
keep it real, I never regret it. If the
goal is authenticity and they don’t like me, I’m okay. If the goal is being liked, and they don’t like
me, I’m in trouble.
So my goal isn’t to have a room full of people, or to be
liked, or to be seen as a spiritual leader or really anything about me. It’s about creating space and leading by
example.
So when anyone asks me “how many people did you have?” the
answer will be “just the right number.” Hey,
if no one shows up one week, at least it’s a two hour time period I’ve already
blocked off and allocated towards the pursuit of God.
Why am I sharing this?
If you are on the ship, and this connects in some way to
your heart, (and you are a woman :)) please join me at 7pm on Wednesdays in the Hospital conference room.
If you aren’t – if you are friends, family, support, strangers
afar – I want to encourage you to be brave with what God is asking you to
do. Maybe it’s leading something like me,
or planting a church, or stepping into something new, and you need to be told
it’s not up to you to create spiritual experiences for people, or bring in the
multitudes, or manipulate emotions or experiences… God never calls us to do any of that. Promise. It’s only up to you to create the
space to do so. I’ve lived under so
much pressure in the past that it’s up to me to bring people to youth group or
to church or to a new experience with God… but really, that’s all His work, and
He’s got it.
 |
| My brave wall. |
Your being brave allows others to do the same.
I’d love to hear what bravery looks like to you today! xxk
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