The four to five days leading up to Adore didn’t go according to plan. But then again, isn’t that life? My husband and I both caught colds. A myriad of distractions kept popping up. And then about 2am the night before, a sweet little voice woke up me saying, “my tummy hurts.” You can guess how the rest of my night went.
When I stepped onto the stage that night, I was exhausted: mentally, physically, emotionally. I wasn’t as prepared as I wanted. I spent most of my day caring for my daughter and reworking my plans instead of working on the message. That night, I knew there was a high probability my throat was going to close during my talk, and I’d have a massive coughing fit. In the middle of reading scripture, it happened.
I can’t explain it, but I, along with many others, could sense it: God was up to something. And more than any other time, I felt completely humbled. If anyone was going to get anything out of Adore, it was going to be all God. Little I had done was amounting to success. I broke almost every rule that every speech and public speaking coach will tell you.
AND GOD DID IT!
The testimonies of what God spoke to your hearts and challenged you to have caused me to stand in awe of our great God. I live in fear some days that my imperfections are going to mess up His plan, His message, His purpose. I think in order to do right by God and let His glory shine I must be perfect. Let me tell you this: You do not have to be perfect to be used by God. Which is a good thing, because none of us would ever be used by Him if that were the case! (Case in point: I even made a typo on one of the graphics. But not just any typo: my WORST grammar pet peeve typo. Yep – I even admitted it to the Instagram world.)
It was an honor to stand before you on Monday and share my word for the year: His Way (yeah, I know. It’s two words, but still). We looked at Isaiah 30 and how 700 years later, the Israelites were still trying to go back to Egypt. We do the same the same thing: continuing to go back to old sins, old places of comfort, old idols. But that’s not what we are called to.
Instead of stubbornly going back to what enslaved us, let’s steadfastly remain with Who saved us.
And when we do, the result is a journey of us desiring to live His Way – not where, but how. If couldn’t make it Monday, we recorded the event!
Audio:
Erin H. Warren 