SIMPLICITY

John here… I’m back in the States now, here in Atlanta, Georgia at the Steubenville Youth Conference. It’s been a whirlwind couple of days, filled with many blessings. I left the UK Thursday after Kristin and I drove 5 hours back south then stopped over to check out London a bit (yes, that's me on the boat there).   After touring the city, I flew straight to Atlanta where (after 26 hours of no sleep!) I met a group of 16 excited teens from my parish in Virginia. The Lord has been very gracious in somehow erasing the jet lag, and providing for me to be present to them in this powerful weekend. In the midst of all this though, I’ve had some time to sit back and let the message that the Lord was revealing to me during my little bit of time in the UK congeal a bit.

I believe perhaps the greatest message that the Father had for me during the brief time we were serving in England has to do with my identity in Him. The “subject” of many of our conversations over the course of the past two weeks centered around worship – why do we worship? what does it mean to worship? what does it mean to lead worship? And specifically as we entered into what it means to lead worship, the Lord revealed the great simplicity of that call more deeply to me: He is my Father, and I am His child. It’s that simple.  And it is the true for all of us.  It’s when we remain in Him – in the arms of the Father – that He bears great fruit through us.

It can be easy to seek our identity in what we do, whether it be in ministry, or our jobs, or activities, or relationships or whatever – when the truth is that God desires that we would find our identity simply in who He says that we are: His beloved daughters and sons. 

As those whom he has gifted and entrusted with a call to ministry, the call is the same: that all that we say and do would flow out of our union with Him. Before we are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors… music ministers, youth ministers, we must first be children. And so as we come before Him, we do so with hearts of disciples… and it’s from this space that He reveals to us His desires for our lives, and for our ministry, and in this way that we move from “doing things in His name” to “ministering under His authority.”

May the Father grant us the grace simply to be children, and to remain in the freedom of that simple call. Amen.

Peace and prayers,

John