The Shine Story

Ok - so I guess I should record the SHINE story for posterity. I sort of told it at SHINE 2006, but it bears repeating as [hopefully] there are lots of new gals interested that have never heard the story before. So here goes.

Way . . . Back in 2004 (!!!!! - can’t believe it’s been that long ago) my dear friend Chris Caine, came to speak at our church. That was a pivotal moment for me, as I know it has been for lots of my friends in ministry. I can’t explain it, but it was a spiritual thing that awakened a sense of potential inside me. So when she left, she gave me a CD of her senior pastor, Bobbie Houston. And that CD sat on my counter for 2 months. One day (pre-iPod) as I was running out the door to go to the gym and was desperate for something to listen to, I grabbed Bobbie’s CD. I hopped in the car and started listening to it. Suffice it to say, I never made it into the gym. I drove around for one hour because I couldn’t turn the CD off. I was so moved, not just by the teaching, but by the transparency and down to earth nature of the whole thing. What impressed me most was that, in spite of being pastor of a HUGE church, she was first and foremost just herself. A daughter of God. Not weird. Not hysterical. Not trying to fit into a mold. Just someone very much doing all she can do run the race God has marked out for her at her highest capacity - just what I desperately wanted to do, too.

At the moment I turned off the CD I realized I had been so in need of someone to look up to and show me the way. I felt like I had been running a race for the last 6 years (our church was then 6 years old), and I had just gotten my first sip of water. I was so thirsty, and I didn’t even know it. I prayed quietly. “God, I can’t believe this has been here the whole time, and I didn’t even know it. I wish I had known.” Then God spoke to my heart and said, “Kerri, there are so many girls and women in your church who are waiting for you to step up and be their ‘Bobbie.’ They need someone to look up to, someone to inspire them, and to live out the God-life in front of them.” So I decided then that I would step up and be that tangible person to the women in my church, too.

So what had kept me hidden behind the lines? Fear. Fear that people’s needs would be more than I could handle. (They are!) Fear that I wouldn’t know the right answers. (I don’t!) Fear of being criticized (I have been). Fear that I would disappoint people and make wrong decisions (check and check). I have experienced all those things. But anything that is of value comes at a cost. And paying the price places value on the thing we seek to attain, so that once we attain it, we are sure not to hold it lightly and squander our opportunity.

We all need someone ahead of us in the race to look at, to inspire us, and to show us how to wear Christ likeness in this world. I needed it, and I know that the women that God has put in my life need it. Maybe someone in your life is looking for someone to reach back to them and bring them into the God-life - to show them how to walk it out. Ask God to open your eyes to the opportunity around you and be willing and ready to step into those opportunities - those are the first steps into the Love Revolution.

Posted on: October 10th, 2007