Activate is an organisation that exists to encourage and resource women to be natural evangelists but evangelism is a word that often scares us off: what we are here to do is love God and love others and the good news that we have to share is simply that we are not alone in the universe, there is a God who created us and loves us.
There is a whole world of people out there who do think they are all alone and that life doesn’t have much meaning apart from personal relationships which can just as often be a source of pain as of joy.
I have lately been listening to Emili Sande’s album ‘Our Version of Events’. There is one song on this album that I think is really beautiful and I suggested at the conference that if Activate were to have a theme song, this might be a good candidate.
Here is a link if you want to listen to the song and see the lyrics
I’m amazed by this song, it says so many things that we at Activate want to say. Apparently it was written about not hiding away a painful upbringing, but it doesn’t refer to that and I think the words could be addressed directly to Christians.
It begins ‘You’ve got the words to change a nation but you’re biting your tongue’ You’ve spent a lifetime stuck in silence afraid you’ll say something wrong. If no one ever hears you how we gonna learn your song’.
‘Maybe we’re a little different, there’s no need to be ashamed, you’ve got the light to fight the shadows, so stop hiding it away’
She could be speaking to us, she’s certainly been speaking to me or at least God has been through the words of that song: ‘it’s about time we got some airplay of our version of events’
I love the line ‘There’s no need to be afraid, I will sing with you my friend’it reminds me I am not entirely responsible for the putting across the whole process of salvation, I am just asked to be a signpost to the love of God and God’s presence in any given situation. It also reminds me I am not alone, we are in this together, just as Activate wants to be alongside you, encouraging you in whatever way you are seeking to signpost others to God
‘We’re all wonderful, wonderful people’ we are uniquely made, gifted and called. I might like to go running, you might enjoy ‘am dram’ or knitting, whatever. God calls us to be who we are and bring his presence in everything we do and to everyone we meet through the whole of our lives. He does not call us to be clones of each other, there is no one right way to point others to God, you will be a signpost in your own unique way and in the unique place God has placed you.
‘When did we all get so fearful?’ Now, that’s a haunting question. When indeed? When we thought that we’d have to know all the answers to really hard question before we simply told someone that we believe there is a God and he does care for them?
You don’t have to worry what to say. ‘The Gospel doesn’t need people who will defend it. The Gospel needs people who will become transformed by it and live it out. That’s mission’(Tim Suttle, blog writer on www.huffingtonpost.com)
‘We’re finally finding our voices’Are we? Are you? We hope that the weekend helped to do that. Remember that singing is not generally a threatening activity! It’s a little bit scary especially if you do it on your own but it’s meant to be appealing. God might call some of us to literally sing but he wants the whole of our lives to metaphorically ‘sing’ to the tune ‘There is a God and he’s real and he knows me and loves me and you can know him too’.
I hope Activate can help you ‘find your voice’,we will ‘sing’ with you, and help you ‘sing’ better in your own unique way.
When we are reminded of the love that has drawn us and holds us, I hope we can ask God to fill us up again with the knowledge of that love and that reality so it reflects out of us. And then they can ‘read all about it’in your life and mine. If I were a stick of rock, I’d hope that when I was broken open you could read the words ‘love God, love other people’.
This is the message of hope.