I found a new way to identify these strange times: holy disruption. The title not only caught my attention, it scared me. Disruption, I understand, but with holy in front of it; disruption becomes a place for God to work.
Hmmmm! Maybe that’s why I cringe at the we’ll-get through-this mantra that abounds. Maybe we’re not supposed to just get through it. Maybe this time of disordering has a purpose beyond anything COVID could deliver.
After all, when God invades a space or a person, he brings His character to it. Then, there is a change potential that does not depend on anything humans can do, legislate, or innovate.
What if God is waiting on us to wake up to His opportunities?
Maybe the reason that surrendering to this time as holy disruption is so hard is because we don’t usually respond well to interruptions. The cultural push to be in charge of our game, to worship productivity and time efficiency has made us inflexible and less adaptable to anything we didn’t plan for or expect.
This doesn’t mean God caused this pandemic, but I do believe He wants to use it to wake us up. He wants to remind us that we are not in charge here.
What if we let God use these changes in our lives the way He wants? So what if we can’t engage people the way we’re comfortable, face to face. Maybe God is pushing us out of comfortable and into available. Or maybe it even goes deeper. Maybe this is God making something new instead of returning normal. New in us, not for us. Maybe His creative words to us are more like Listen. Rest. Be still. Be here. Let Me . . .
Holy disruption. These two words give us hope that disruption, in the hands of God, has purpose. It brings us back to surrender. Surrender ALL. Are we really giving everything to a loving, creative, innovative, redeeming Sovereign? Or are we holding on to what we want?
My yes doesn’t come quickly. That would be arrogant. It must grow from the deep place in me where I protect my dreams, my comfort level, my insecurities. But when I can say yes, even quietly with a little fear mixed in, I know that God is working on me where I need to develop His mindset
Romans 12:2 reminds us to “let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Rom. 12:2, NLT
Everything in me says that nothing is going to get easier; everything is going to be different. But different is just God’s artist’s studio. The question we all must ask is will we surrender to what God wants to do with different and how it changes our normal?
That is a holy disruption. If we want to see what God can do in this messed up world, we must give Him freedom to do it in us, first.
What is sanctification but a holy disruption at the altar of surrender?
