Influence, the response

I spent this weekend in Indianapolis at the Influence Conference. We met, talked, learned, prayed, and sang together. It was a lovely, beautiful, and instructive time. There is a lot to process, but one theme is already evident.

When Jami Nato poured out her guts before a room of eager listeners, sharing the pain of an unfaithful husband and a broken marriage restored by Christ, I had only one response. When she talked about secret idols in hidden places and desires for anything more than Jesus, I experienced it again.

When Emily Freeman spoke of finding your art, the creative effort which makes you come alive, I amen’d her words.

When Jessi Connolly said, “The right thing at the wrong time is still the wrong thing,” I felt the weight her talk.

After all of their words, I turned my heart toward heaven in worship. Because their God is my God and even though our struggles are different I know from whence they speak.

Instead of feeling deep conviction, shame, or guilt, my heart cried the familiar chorus, “Hallelujah! What a Savior!” Not because I don’t have idols, or have found my art, or do the right thing at the right time, but because I’m finally discovering what it is to live in the freedom of Christ every day.

I remember it clearly in one session. A young woman raised her hand to say with trembling voice, “What are some verses you use to deal with the shame?” And the response from the podium was great but I wanted to shout from the back of the room, “He who knew no sin became sin for you so that in Him you might become the righteousness of God.” These words are my daily companion.

As I drove home with anticipation, I saw fall colors dot the landscape like strokes from an impressionist brush — the golden leaves shouting fall’s final Hallelujah. I remembered a room of women tired from a weekend of meeting, connecting, and loving who raised their voices together to “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”

Again, I worshiped.