“I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." (Ephesians 4:1-2 NIV)
I grew up a grungy little farm kid completely unaware that it was weird to be both grungy and a little farm kid at the same time. I wasn’t the best kid. In fact, I was a pretty bad kid. I was a runaway. In fact, I can’t remember a time that I wasn’t trying to run away from something. I would wait for night to fall, pull on my Doc Martens and open the shutter that would set me free. After a short walk, I would hop the red rusted fence where my boots would fall into the pasture of a cow and I would run… I would run until the world behind me was far enough away.
I got in a weird funk last week and that’s why I told you that story. You see, I'm a pastor now and as I was filing through the remnants of old things, I came across a picture that reminded me of who I used to be. Just one of the cool kids. I felt burdened because I kind of missed that. That’s human. To miss what was.
Peter Parker said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Sometimes that’s a lot. Sometimes I miss when people didn’t treat me “like a pastor.” I don’t get to not care anymore. God won’t allow that. Everything bothers me because it bothers Him. I don’t get to be that person. I still wear the same Docs I always have. I still have plenty of tattoos and plenty to say but today I run to my Father and I pastor the pasture. My God doesn’t live in the past so I let that thought pass too.
The enemy is after making us miss what we had so we cannot focus on what God is doing in our future.
Do you ever miss the way things were? It’s human. But just like me, you can dress up light in any form you want to and that light will still be light. You can put a lampshade on it. You can hide it under a blanket. You can toss it up in the sky and call it a star... and at the end of the day, that light will always be a light. There is no way that you or I can ever be who we were before we knew Him. You cannot truly encounter the God of the universe and not be eternally changed.
From a girl who went from death to life, I want to encourage you today that the old you has nothing on the you that you are becoming. Just think — the God you serve now is the same God that makes the god of this world tremble. There’s nothing edgier than that. Saul went from a killer to a bold defender of the Gospel (Acts 9:1-31 ) and you are being changed every day for the glory of something so much greater than the world can offer.
The next time you miss the you that you knew, remember the God that loved you at your worst and continues to champion you into the glorious light of today.
You’ve got this, cool kid. You’ve got this.
Copyright © 2019 Brooke Keith