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As we move closer to the NNAY conference, focused on the question: “Who are you signaling?” My thoughts are: Do you believe you're worth signaling? Worth… a hefty idea that goes to the roots of who we are and what we place our identity in. Many of us, even Christ-followers of a few days or many years, are at war within. Uprooting who the world has raised us to be, and letting Christ truly become our foundation, our cornerstone. I’ve met transformed Christ-followers who are a 180-degree version of who they once were. They have truly been renewed, reborn, and have obeyed the call of the Holy Spirit to walk a different way. But they still struggle with believing they are worthy of the blessings and community of Christian fellowship. In my flesh, I desire that once we say “YES” to Jesus, we would be completely sanctified; restored to a garden state of being, operating out of selfless and enduring love. But that’s just not how it works. It’s for our good that “He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion” (Philippians 1:6), and that we are “being saved” (1 Corinthians 1:2). Sanctification is a process… not something instantly thrust upon us. Many of us are lost in the belief that we aren’t smart enough, good enough, sinless enough, or that we don’t have the right credentials. We carry the shame of a past filled with destruction and darkness, and we feel disqualified from being the one Christ died for. We think we aren’t qualified to be the ones He gave “all authority in heaven and on earth… to go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded” (Matthew 28:18–20). But you are. “It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us to be ministers of His new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death, but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.”
—2 Corinthians 3:5–6
Let’s not wait to serve and love our neighbor until we become the “elite Jesus warrior” we think we need to be. If it were easy, it wouldn’t require faith. Christ thinks you’re worth it and He wants to work with you. Shake off the lies darkness and the world want to keep you trapped in. The truth is, if you’re waiting until you feel “ready and equipped” to help your neighbor or to take responsibility in a Christian community, you never will. One day, you'll look back at the last 5, 10… even 20 years of your life, and realize you weren’t part of one lost soul being found, one son or daughter coming home, or the fruit of the Spirit blooming all around you. When we’re stagnant in the Kingdom, we wither; and we start to hate the world we live in because we’re no longer looking to Christ to set the tone of our lives. We have to have the faith to move… even when we’re scared, when we don’t feel like it, when our favorite show is on, or when no one else around us is doing it. You probably won’t change the world, but you are responsible for your world; to bring the hope of Jesus into it. You are worthy of the call, and I hope you feel compelled to move.
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