Even When You Rock the Boat

Editor’s Note: It’s Sit & Listen Saturday at Devotionals Daily. Do you ever feel like you’re not enough… but also, too much? Sometimes even on the same day? You’re not alone. But in God’s eyes, you aren’t either one of those things – you’re fearfully and wonderfully made because you are made in God’s perfect image. This is what authors Hayley Morgan and Jess Connolly are preaching to women in their newest devotional, Always Enough, Never Too Much. Enjoy reading as well as listening to today’s devotion from the book below or on your Alexa device by enabling the skill and then prompting, “Alexa, ask devotionals to read today’s devotion.”

Even When You Rock the Boat

~ by Hayley

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven. Then come, follow Me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. — Matthew 19:21-22

It is not abnormal for me to get loud about the ways the marginalized are hurting or the ways the world isn’t just. I have a hard time standing by while the powerful gain more power and fairness seems to be in short supply.

The people at the outskirts of life need the people in places of position and status to actually care about them.

This tendency doesn’t make everyone around me particularly comfortable, though. I am a nice girl, I live in a pretty nice house, I have a nice husband, and I have a handful of nice kids. My small corner of the world is right where the suburbs blur into the cornfields. As quiet as it is in our neighborhood, it’s also pretty homogenous, which makes it easy to forget that other people in the world are suffering.

But caring about justice has a tendency to ruffle the feathers of a nice, comfortable life. Once you know better, the Spirit compels you to do better. Still, it can be off-putting or frustrating for the people near you if you choose to talk about things that threaten the status quo of the life they’ve built. I think their aversion is more toward the Spirit than it is toward the person rocking their boat. And, honestly, it’s fine with me if someone is frustrated with me in their first steps of wrestling with God.

Caring about the “least of these” and the marginalized is not feisty; it’s just Jesus-y.

Jesus asked the rich young ruler to give away everything he had and follow Him. But the rich young ruler couldn’t fathom laying down his possessions, his power, or his position in order to walk after a poor, raggedy man. Because the rich young ruler couldn’t lower himself, he didn’t get to walk in the life Jesus had for him.

And this is what happens with us if we’re not able or willing to part with our things, the props that make our lives lovely. If we’re not willing to yield our position if called, we’ll miss the way God would have used us and changed us. This is a fact of the faith. We have to turn toward God for Him to accomplish His work in us and through us.

When you’re feeling a little sheepish because of your big mouth on behalf of others, just remember that you may be the first little stone to ripple someone’s calm life. That first stone feels heavy. But if you’re willing to rock someone else’s quiet, God can begin a chain reaction of change in the world.

It doesn’t take a big act as much as a small faith and constant, enduring submission. It doesn’t always feel good to speak out, but we don’t have to be world changers as much as truth tellers. Not everyone is glad to hear the truth, but the truth always cracks things open where God wants to work.

Excerpted with permission from Always Enough, Never Too Much by Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan, copyright Jessica Ashleigh Connolly and Hayley E. Morgan.

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Your Turn

Rocking the boat might ruffle feathers, but what would be the cost if we don’t? Speak out! Come share your thoughts with us on our blog. We want to hear from you! ~ Devotionals Daily