Hey Millennials, Ever Feel Like God Leaves You on Read??? (#relatable) - R

My manager is telling me that the youngsters respond well when I try to relate to them.

I want to tell you a little story.

In the summer of 2016, I was confused. This by itself is nothing groundbreaking, as I am frequently confused to a dangerous degree. For the first time, though, I was confused about my future. I had, one year prior, decided to go to the University of Alabama to pursue a degree in Mechanical Engineering. The more perceptive readers may note that I do not in fact attend that university nor am I pursuing that degree. Enter confusion.

So there I was, laying in bed one night, writing a note to a girl because I've got mad game. When a thought pops into my head. You're probably familiar with the sensation. You've probably thought something like, I didn't lock my door on the way out, or I really don't give Riley enough presents. And then the thought will exit, leaving only a fleeting impression of its existence at all. My thought was a little stranger.

What if I'm supposed to be at ACU to pursue ministry?

I don't know if brain cells can scoff, but if they can, every single one of mine scoffed at that thought. Because that's absurd! The entire time I was looking at colleges, I never glanced at ACU, truthfully because I thought I could do more. I thought that I could be more than ACU would make me. I thought that I shouldn't settle for a small private school when I did so well in high school, when I had so many opportunities in front of me, and when I knew that I could land an amazing job directly out of college.

Plus . . . ministry?!

At that point, I hadn't believed in God in well over a year. I had struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts and had cried out repeatedly for God to save me, never receiving a response. I was ready to do life without faith.

So this thought was laughable at best, and I was ready to throw it away like all other weird thoughts. But here's the deal - it didn't go away. For days, it stuck in my head much like songs do. It crouched just behind my forehead, ready to ruin my day if I ever stopped to examine it.

After days of this, I began to suspect that this thought might be important. So I did something that I hadn't done in a very very long time.

I called out to God.

I told him that if this was something that he wanted, I needed a sign. I needed him to tell me what I was supposed to do. Because I can't afford to be this confused right now.

I'm beginning my third year at ACU. And I never looked back.

Before you ask exactly what the sign I received was, I want to tell you another story.

Most know of Elijah and how he completely humiliated the prophets of Baal in a head to head contest between his God and their god (see 1 Kings 18). But there's one little detail in there that most don't remember from Sunday school as a kid.

Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there. - 1 Kings 18:40

Dark ending right? So understandably, the king and queen aren't too pleased that their prophets puppets were just murdered, so the queen, Jezebel, sends Elijah a death threat. Elijah flees in fear, and starts having a heart to heart with God. He essentially says that he has done everything right, but the people have rejected him and his message, and he is completely lost. What follows is, to me, one of the most powerful glimpses of how God works in our entire Bible.

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. 

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too. 

The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” - 1 Kings 19:11-18

When I asked God for a sign, I was looking for a powerful wind. Or an earthquake. Or a fire.  Or a giant, flashing, neon sign. Or an angel to drop down with a scroll describing my entire life's plan. I didn't get any and I was pretty hurt by that.

But I did get a whole lot of whispers.

I did get small nudges. I did get thoughts that wouldn't leave me alone. I did have multiple doors open before me. I did have multiple people put in my path who were ready and willing and able to help wherever possible.

I, like Elijah, was convinced either that God didn't have a plan, or was choosing not to tell it to me. But maybe I just wasn't listening correctly.

Why would we expect God to need to shout for us to hear him?

I originally came up with two answers, and you may be thinking one or both of these. For one, God is just a powerful being. He created the universe with a word, he parted the sea and then swallowed the enemy inside of it. I expect a big noise from a big God. And for another thing, we as people are just dumb. Maybe he needs to talk real loudly to cut through my own stupidity and make sure that he's heard.

I think these are both plausible, but I don't think either is correct.

Maybe we need him to shout because of how far away from ourselves we've placed him.

The thing about whispering is that you need to be reeeeaaaaaallllll close to hear it. Uncomfortably close, some would say. There's a certain intimacy that comes with it, a closeness required only for deeper relationships. And if we hold God at arm's length, much like I attempted to do, we're going to miss quite a bit of what he has to say.

And I think it's important to note that God isn't whispering to us to frustrate us. He doesn't want us to miss things. He wants to invite us in. He wants us to incline our heads and lean forward. He wants us to approach him to hear what he has to say. Because he knows that no matter what life we want to live, a life lived in close relationship with him is the life we need to live.

If you're tired of feeling like you're screaming into the void, maybe it's time to remove that void between you and God.

Every time I'm in a season of life where I'm struggling, I always feel as if God has turned a deaf ear. And I always have to remind myself that what has likely happened is I have begun to distance myself from God and am now unable to hear his whisper.

I assure you, God is speaking to you. Even now. It's time to start listening, and listening closely.

~RJS~

From the Authors

Hello, dear readers.

If you’re wondering what exactly this is, we’ll get there eventually, but it’s more important that we start with who we are. Most of you reading will know one of us, since we will likely be spreading the word about this on our personal social media accounts (and we have a terrible publicist), and some of you may know both of us. We are Mason Fitzgerald and Riley Stirman. We are extraordinarily goofy. We enjoy throwing a Frisbee around. We tend to eat our body weight in fried foods and regret that decision almost immediately. And we are two imperfect men who were brought together by a mutual love for a perfect God

We have divided this first post between the two of us, and since we don’t want to keep saying ‘we,’ we have decided to use a certain font color to correspond to each writer. It should be very easy to remember. Riley is in Red. Mason is in Mblue.

So let’s talk.

I have had the distinct pleasure of knowing Mason for just over five years now. I have been lucky enough to be included in his struggles, his victories, his ministry, his humor, and his heart. I know of almost no other person who takes following Jesus as seriously as Mason Fitzgerald. Despite an incredibly difficult life, his focus has always been to bring others love.

We met at ACU in the summer of 2013 at a camp called Kadesh, and we became friends almost immediately. I needed a hat. Mason had a hat. Mason gave me the hat. Instant best friends. Funnily enough, the theme for that year was Grace. This word has come to have enormous meaning for our friendship, and was the inspiration for this blog’s name. A year later, at the next Kadesh, Mason’s shoulder got love-tapped by a softball-sized piece of hail hurtling earthward at supersonic speeds. He ended up needing surgery - a fact that would have greatly discouraged most avid tennis players, but one that only excited Mason. That hailstone turned his life around and directly led him to pursue ministry. Weird right? Maybe if I hit him with my car, he’ll move to starting some orphanages on the moon or something.

Mason has become one of the most important and impactful people in my life. He has always challenged me, pushed me, encouraged me to become a better version of myself, the version of myself that God desperately wants me to become. And I am always so excited for wherever he chooses to go, because I never have any doubt that the people there will be immensely blessed.

Literally the first word that comes to my mind when I think of Riley is “unique.” He’s a cut above those around him and that’s a huge part of what makes him who he is, while at the same time being one of the highest compliments I can give someone. If I want a perspective that I know will be different than mine, I go no further than asking his opinion on a subject. The only issue I’ve ever had with him is that he sometimes doesn’t let me finish a thought before hYou talking trash? Well...nevermind. His intellect, as you’ll come to read, is levels higher than mine while at the same time he has an unrivaled, genuine humility. Navigating the twists and turns of adolescence with him as my oldest and most consistent friend, I learned so much about the value of compassion, grace, and brutal honesty through both my experiences and his. Our relationship has evolved intellectually over the years from mostly talking about girls to talking about girls a lot, but there is one thing we talk about more than girls: Jesus. In the days we struggled with even believing, we were still somehow brought together through conversations about the God who’s in charge of this whole crapstorm (life). We’ve grown, cried, laughed a lot, and worshipped Jesus through our friendship, and I am immensely blessed to have found such a friend so early in life. He’s already an old friend, and in the words of Ben Rector: “You can’t make old friends.”

Not long ago, Mason started a personal blog. (Not that personal. Everyone’s invited. Click HERE if you’re cool.) I have been repeatedly amazed at his reflections on Christian living and the way he challenged me to adjust my thinking and adjust my life. And since I am both an attention hog and dangerously low in creativity, I said, “Mason! Let’s start a blog together!” This is that blog.

Something I’ve preached up and down since I was able to recognize it is to take advantage of your blessings. You have them for a reason. I’ve taken my friendship with Riley for granted in many ways. We both have a passion for sharing Grace and yet we’ve been doing so separately for many years. When I got the “can we start a blog together” text, there was absolutely no way I could turn it down. It all made sense. So, here it is. I have no idea what will happen, honestly. I may be taking Revelation 3:20 completely out of context, but God knocking at the door is common imagery when talking about acceptance. I believe that whatever areas we invite Him in and are truly vulnerable to His will, God will work. So I’m using this time to officially devote this blog and our hands while typing to God’s will. He’s never let me down yet, so let’s see what he does with this one.

For the most part, we will not be writing in this irritating, multi-chromatic style that’s making your head hurt. Our aim is to post once a week, with each of us trading off on weeks, so you’ll get plenty of both of our voices. You may note that we have some pretty different writing styles, and we do. We have lived very different lives, we have very different views, very different behaviors and mannerisms, and very different ways of thinking about our complex, indescribable Creator. Despite our differences though, we have come up with three general aims for our blog that we are attempting to let guide our writing.

Let’s go over our goals for this blog. They’re insanely simple, like our minds. Here they are:

1. Inform 
2. Inspire 
3. Impact 

Oooo, alliteration. Just a coincidence, I promise. Here’s the reason we chose these three main points, which will hopefully be played out in each of our blogs (that’s the goal):

Inform
We want the reader to finish reading with more knowledge than he/she had before clicking our shameless social media plugs. There is so much value in learning from another’s point of view, and here you have two unique (albeit simple) perspectives contributing what we feel called to tell you.

The best way to ensure constant growth and development is to find a way to become a lifelong learner. God created us with a desire for knowledge, and that was never meant to go away after an arbitrary number of years in school. I hope that you will at least learn something from our incoherent ramblings.

Inspire
Knowledge without action is useless, in my humble opinion. Action can be sharing the knowledge, injecting it into a life somehow, or simply establishing a new perspective. We want to practically give the reader something to work with. Example: instead of just giving you more knowledge (like how many times “community” is mentioned in the Bible), we want to inspire you to do something with said knowledge (like um go make a community if you don’t have one, or find one because it’s SO important).

I like to compare the interaction between information and inspiration with our breathing. Picture gaining knowledge as inhaling. We are filled with it, sustained by it, and we live by it. But we have to do something with all that we breathe in. Just like we need air to rush in for us to live, we also need it to rush back out. We need to exhale. We need to do something with what we’ve learned.

Impact
Here’s my selfish side talking: I want to see results. I want to see fruit come from this tree. But an impact may be something other than “mad hits.” Is that what the kids are saying these days? Mad hits? If not I want it to be a thing. Also I’m biologically still an adolescent so I can’t make those jokes yet. Whatever. Okay. Mad hits. Numbers are not my goal here. If one life in the entire history of this blog is changed, or it causes someone to act out of love rather than hate, then I’d say we’ve fulfilled our purpose. We’ll be searching and experimenting new ways to impact people with our words here. The combination of inform and inspire is IMPACT. That’s my overall goal here.

Yeah, what he said^^^

So there you have it. As previously stated, we’re not really sure what we expect to come out of this, but we know that we’re both excited. We want to share our views, our stories, and our God with the world. If the only people who are encouraged by our work are my dear friend and me, then I will still count this blog a success. But if somehow, even one person reads something from our lives and is encouraged by the knowledge of our all-powerful God, all the better.

Riley and I are learning through this, but man, I’m excited. I’m honestly pumped to read what Riley has to say, and I’m hoping God works despite the sinful humans we are. God’s cool like that, and if nothing else maybe you (the reader) can watch us struggle and laugh at us. But Riley and I are praying over this tonight, and best believe that wherever God is present, a good time will be had by all (unless you’re satan, don’t be satan).

Congratulations if you’ve made it this far. And with that . . .

Welcome to The GraceYard Shift.

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