god is ridiculous.

i say that not in a bad way, but rather in a way that is meant to be a hip way of saying that god is awesome. if you’re reading this right now then chances are you’ve read the post i wrote a couple weeks ago about how my freshmen pooled their money together to buy me new tires so that i could go home for thanksgiving.

what you don’t know about is the e-mail that i sent nicole on the afternoon that i found out i needed new tires. this is what i said:

hey. the stuff with my car sucks. it sucks really really bad. it’s throwing a wrench in getting to come home and see you and just putting a damper on things. with that being said, i’m convinced that there’s a reason for it. i don’t know what that reason is yet, but i want to try something. i’m telling you this because i trust you and want you to add this to your prayers over the next week.

god can do anything. we both know that and agree with that. while i was setting up for the well tonight, i was praying and really just talking to God more than anything. i told him I don’t know if this was his way of getting me to stay for quiet waters so we could have some time together, or if it was his way of showing me something else. then, as i was talking to him, i had an idea. i am speaking next week at fuel on “blessed are the merciful for they will be given mercy.” i want a chance to completely brag on god and what he has done and how he has used merciful people. i’m fully ready to take on the costs and take on whatever it takes to pay for everything myself if that’s what it takes. but i want a chance to show God off.

for the next week, i’m going to be praying for that opportunity through this crap with my car. i don’t know what “getting to show god off” looks like. i don’t know if it means someone randomly gives me the money to fix everything. i don’t know if it means finding there was some type of recall with jeep. i don’t know if it means finding out i can get a really good deal to fix everything. whatever it is, i just want a chance to show him off.

i’m not telling anyone else about this. i want it to stay between the two of us. if god chooses not to show off through this then that’s fine and he’ll show off in another way. i at least want to ask him though. so for the next week, i’d like you to pray for this at least once a day. it doesn’t have to be a long drawn out prayer. i just want to ask god to show up and expect him to do it.

i had the idea to pray and ask god to let me show him off in front of 160 high school students and leaders. nothing had come through by the time i spoke at fuel so i couldn’t “brag on jesus” during that time. i didn’t think much of it and just figured god had different plans than i did.

after i found out the guys were going to do the tire thing, i wrote a blog post showing them off. it was my most read post on here in over a year and i felt really good that those guys were getting the attention. it was really, really cool.

the title of that post was “we are bigger than we let you be.”

the next day while i was poking around the internet, i got the urge to randomly submit that post to one of the biggest student ministry websites in the country. i knew it was a long shot that it would get posted but i wanted to at least try.

after submitting it i didn’t think anything of it. two days later i get an e-mail from the guy saying that he loved it and would post it in the coming week.

wait, what?

he actually read it?

he actually liked it?

he’s actually going to post it?

holy crap. i didn’t expect that at all.

many of you that are reading this post are likely coming from that website. chances are, this is going to be the one post that i write other than the one on more than dodgeball that you’ll ever read.

once i saw that josh had actually posted my entry on his website, my first thought was, “how do i respond? what do i say? this is my one chance to make a statement to random student ministry people. don’t blow it.”

after thinking about it, i’ve only got one thing to say:

god is bigger than we let him be.

so many times we, and by we i mean student ministry people, get wrapped up in the work and the budget and all of the little things that we forget to let god be god.

we know he can do anything.

we tell our kids he can do anything.

we just don’t give him the space to do anything.

start praying and asking for god to have a chance to show off. ask him to work in a way that the only response you’ll be able to say is, “yeah, that wasn’t me. that was a total god thing.” ask him to show up so that people walk in the door and can’t help but think, “yeah, god’s around this place.”

let god be bigger than you’ve ever let him be.

and then sit back and watch how amazing he truly is.

say your prayers and take your vitamins.

have a nice day.

-jonathan