“God is not safe, but he is good”

The last main session at Passion was a very emotional time for me. Louie Giglio talked about personal calling, focusing on how all Christ followers are called to be full time ministers, regardless of occupation. He explained how we’re instructed to reflect Jesus in our whole lives, whether we are called to be on a ministry’s payroll or whether we’re called to design boutique jeans. At the end of the talk, he had everyone who felt called to commit themselves to full time ministry through doing their non-ministry payroll job with excellence and integrity in a way that mirrors Jesus stand. He next had all the people who felt called to professional ministry stand and finally all the people who felt called to one of the previous two options, but were unsure which at the time. Then Louie, other members of the Passion team, and the worship leaders came out on stage and prayed over everyone who was standing.

After a few minutes of praying, we went back into worship. I was choked up during the commissioning prayer and was flat out crying during some of the worship songs. The whole experience was so emotional, seeing nearly all 18,000 people who were at the conference standing for the commissioning, and knowing that I was stepping out in faith by standing there. During the worship, a banner that read “GLORIOUS”, two letter per side, surrounded the stage. The banner changed colors from white to red and then finally to blacklight purple. When the blacklights came on, the banner exposed thousands of messages written on the banner as worship–all of which had been written on it during the week by people at the conference. The camera panned across the banner, so we could read the smaller quotes. One of the quotes summed the whole experience up perfectly: “God is not safe, but he is good.” Exactly what I was feeling and why I was so emotional.

The safe choice usually is to be passive. Many people believe that Satan wants us to do bad things, God wants us to do good things, and there’s a middle ground where we just stay where we are. But Satan’s plan for us is simple: that we ignore God’s plan for our lives. Being passive is letting Satan win! Following Christ means taking risks and not always being safe. Jesus said, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Mark 8:34 ESV). That’s not choosing the safe option! I chose to step out in faith and go with the unsafe option, even though much of myself tells me that I am crazy for doing so. I know that the cost will be high and I know that it won’t be an easy option, but I am trusting in the goodness of God and moving outside of my comfort zone. If you’re reading this, please pray for me as I figure out what to make of my calling. I know how I’ve been called, but I have yet to learn or figure out what that means in practical terms of how I move forward from here.

Note: I’ve discovered that the quote is a loose quoting of Mr. Beaver from C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.