Why can’t I just do all of it?

One of my favorite Taylor Swift lines is, “When you are young they assume you know nothing. But I knew everything…”

Taylor’s right—at least in some part. The lyric resonates tremendously with me.

I grew up in a wonderful church. A wonderful church that had flaws like EVERY OTHER CHURCH in the world. One of the things that was always strange to me was the rigid roles everyone had to play. It was like characters on a TV show. There’s “the smart one,” “the funny one,” “the pretty one,” you get the picture. Except in church there’s “the firery one,” “the pray-er",” “the musical one,” “the one whose really good at explaining things,” “the one whose really good at getting you excited” and none of these EVER overlapped. EVER.

At least that’s how it felt to me.

It felt like in ministry there are uniforms you put on and they’re each distinct and clearly defined.

And none of them felt like me.

Oh sure, people tried to tell me which one I was made to wear. But something in me always kicked back. Now I’d say it was Holy Spirit kicking back.

I wasn’t born to wear a man-made costume of religion. I was born to reflect the image of the invisible God and who is ANYONE to say they know EXACTLY what that looks like?

How BOLD to say anyone can DEFINE what God’s plan looks like in someone’s life.

So stand firm if you’re made to do things differently and BE QUIET if you don’t understand someone’s path.

It’s not your job to understand and only one of you will stand before the judgment seat of Christ one day and give an account.