Breaking lies (& plastic forks)

{to my Mennonite friends}

Yesterday I sat on the floor in our laundry room as my Mommy folded clothes, and we talked about life callings and bigger-than-us dreams.  And out of nowhere, Jesus pops into our conversation and starts revealing a bunch of lies I've believed about myself.

As a Mennonite, I will never go far in life.
I will never have a large ministry or a platform to speak from.
I can never be well-educated and intelligent.
I have nothing to offer the secular or mainstream Christian world.
My voice will not be heard.
People view me as being in bondage, and therefore do not value my insight.
There will always be a ceiling over me and my ministry- limiting what I am called to do.

For years, I've been believing the lie that I do not have anything to offer, because of the denomination I was born and raised into.  And to be completely honest, I have been trying to escape the Mennonite church and label for the past several months now.  Partly because I see a much bigger picture of who the Bride of Christ is and what I feel she should look like...but partly because of the pain and judgment and lies I've picked up and experienced from the Mennonite church.

My prophet-mother gets all excited: "Let's break these lies right now!  Wanna break something with your hands to symbolize it?"  Yes please, let's make this moment memorable!
She ran into the kitchen and came back with plastic forks, so I sat on the rug on our dirty laundry room floor and verbally broke lies and cut plastic forks in half. (The forks were cheap and bendy, so I had to settle for a scissors.)

Then I declared truth.  Not the things that I simply want or wish for, but the things that have been burning in my soul for years, the things I hear from Jesus- even when my mind doesn't see how it can happen and my sometimes-religious thought patterns react.

I will break through the ceiling that has been over the Anabaptist people for centuries!
I will have a platform to speak out what God is doing!
I will preach the Gospel- as a woman!
I will travel the world and bring freedom!
I will lead a powerful ministry!
I will reach thousands!


And to be completely honest again, there were tears.  Because my flesh wants to run away from the hurts and judgments all too common in conservative churches.  But God spoke to me that there is a reason He has placed me in the culture in which I was raised.  And just because of who I am, I have the same FIRE inside my spiritual DNA that led the original Anabaptists to walk boldly in Holy Spirit power and turn their world upside down.

I choose to embrace the Anabaptist heritage I was given-- to let go of the religion, the pain, the judgments-- and to take the fire and the culture of honor I was raised with and burst through the ceiling that I feel has been over the Anabaptist people for centuries.
Because Jesus says, "There is no ceiling!"

And yeah, my calling and personal journey is not going to be normal or comfortable, and I have no idea what this will look like practically lived out... Honestly, it will probably offend a lot of people.  But so did Jesus.  And I believe He will show me each day what my life needs to look like...

All I know is that what God is setting up with this generation is unprecedented.
Will you join me in crashing through whatever ceiling has been placed over you, or even one you've placed over yourself?

THERE IS NO CEILING!

(I share all of this only because there are probably others from conservative churches who can relate to and realize similar lies in their own lives.  Everywhere I look, I see glory being restored to the Anabaptists!  And in my opinion, it has nothing to do with where you currently attend church or your personal convictions on Mennonite hot-topics, but everything to do with your spiritual DNA and where God chose to place you... So if you were raised in any sort of Anabaptist culture, take the fire and run!  Don't settle for preserving and maintaining what you've been given-- run faster, build higher, dream bigger!  Give your kids an even greater springboard to leap from one day!  This is only the beginning!)