Last weekend, Lisa and I drove down to Birmingham to a women’s conference at Shades Mountain Baptist Church.  The theme was For Such A Time As This and the speaker was my favorite, Jen Hatmaker.  (Jen is the author of Seven, Interrupted, and the eagerly anticipated For the Love.)

PS:  I took Jase, since he is still dependent on mom for food and everything, and he was a trooper.  He endured cheek pinches and head rubs and several hours of Jen talking and was an angel.

Jen is all about not just “doing church” but being the church.

A few of my favorite quotes from the sessions:

• You do not need full confidence in yourself to say yes to God, you need full confidence in Him.  God is capable.
• Our relationship with God is not a democracy.  When He says go, we say yes.
• Ordinary does not sideline us.
• How dare we call unworthy what God has already redeemed?
• Brave moves fail because we fail to notice God’s hand in our lives.  God is always at work, even if we hardly notice Him.
• If you are faithful in the small, you better buckle up sister.  God is going to do great things with you!

In her book Interrupted, Jen talks about how God repeatedly showed her the word ‘new’ as they were preparing to leave their church and do something different.  The new for them was an entirely new kind of church–one that goes to the people and serves others.  At the conference, she told a similar story of how Ethiopia continually came up when she and her husband were preparing to adopt.

Well, I kid you not, the word ‘brave’ has come up no less than 7,625 times in my life the past few weeks.  Just a few examples:

• my bible study.  As I’ve been reading through Luke, I’ve written down brave things several times.  Mary bravely accepted the task set before her as mother of our Savior.  The friends of the paralyzed man were brave when they lowered him through the rooftop.
• my newest book.  I have had a stack of books for several months now.  As I get a new book, I place it at the bottom of the stack and when I’m ready for a new one, I choose the book on the top.  Last week, the book on top was Let’s All Be Brave by Annie Downs.
• at the women’s conference this weekend, the song that grabbed my heart (and I had somehow never heard before!?) was You Make Me Brave.  If you haven’t heard it, you have GOT to hear Sarah Reeves version. Go here.
• Jen’s words for us this weekend.  Everyone got something different from what she was saying, but what stuck out to me was bravery.  Esther’s bravery.  The bravery of Caleb and Joshua in Numbers.
• Erin Condren’s IG photo today was followed up with this quote:  Be brave enough to trust yourself.

Unlike Jen, I haven’t made a habit of looking for God’s fingerprints in my life.  I’m afraid I’ve missed several ‘commissioned moments’ because I wasn’t paying attention.  Now I’m paying attention and God gives me a word like ‘brave’.  Seriously?  I’m a little slow God.  How about a more specific word?  (Ha!)

But what I think is, as a Christian in this generation, God is calling us to be courageous.  To be brave.  That bravery could come in the form of sharing Christ with family or loving your neighbor or moving to a mission field in Kenya.  Being God’s ambassador requires bravery and courage and the willingness to say yes to Him.  Let’s all be brave.