Mission: Naomi Gets Whiplash

This week, the trajectory of my life changed. What I thought I was going to do after high school completely turned. I mean, do you ever have one of those days when you wake up expecting to do one thing, you've planned it all out and then suddenly, whiplash. (soft music) I have a secret. All my life, I've had questions about my faith, about God and about religion. (upbeat music) But now I'm going to tell you my questions, my struggles, my doubts. I hope you can handle the truth. (upbeat music) Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to go to this art school on the west coast. My aunt Claire had this book in her house. It was filled with pictures of designers, stylists and painters at work. And I knew that's what I wanted to do. Paint. But when I was 14, my friend Hannah forwarded me this video. It was a story about a girl, just like me, only she had been trapped in sex trafficking. It just wrecked my heart. I wanted to do something to show her how loved and valued she was by God. And I thought, what if I became a painter who paints beautiful images of women who have escaped trafficking. Empowering, hopeful, images the way they imagine their ideal selves. It could be a gift to them, to their new future, a painting of a new creation. (soft music) And so, it became my mission. All throughout high school, I've done everything I can to get into this school to achieve my dreams, to become a painter and to be a sort of blessing to these women who have suffered so much. And now I can't. (soft music) And I have no idea what I'm going to do next. We're not just saved from something. We're also saved for something. Like being in a dark prison, Christ, our light shines into our prison cells. He breaks the chains. He beckons us to walk out with him. But he also puts the keys into our hands. He gives us the tools to unlock the chains of others. It will look different for each of us, but we're made to be on Christ's mission with him to bring him glory by bringing heaven to earth. We are set free in order to set others free. We can't do it on our own though. And we can't predict how he will use us. Naomi? Naomi? You can't keep sitting there like that. You need to get going. Why? This may require you to reassess some of your life goals. (soft music) What's the point? I think that maybe some of these setbacks might actually be blessings. Like you're acting like this is an impediment to your future but what if God is trying to show you something that you wouldn't have seen in any other way? Come on Naomi. God is powerful enough that He could accomplish His mission all on His own if He wanted to. He certainly doesn't need us so why are we even on a mission? Think about a master chef and his daughter. He could cook so much faster and better without her and goodness, the kitchen is so much more of a mess when she's "helping" dad but he loves being together with her in the kitchen. With patient instruction, warm encouragement, and lots of laughs, he is shaping not only her skills for cooking, but her love of it as well. God loves to work with His children too. And as He does, we grow more like Him and more prepared to serve in the places He sometimes unexpectedly calls us. God is transforming us along the way. You're late. Had a lot on my mind. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm just. I need someone to paint. Painting survivors of trafficking. I have an idea but... my sister, she's been serving at Hope House. Maybe you can call them up? At Hope House, there's a lady named Stephanie who wants to meet with people who want to learn more. Maybe you could grab coffee with her? Really? I'm not too much of a noob. It's just coffee. What could go wrong? So, painting trafficking survivors. It's not that it's a bad idea, but it's, it's complicated. When did you first start painting? Freshman year. Can I see some of your paintings? Sure. (murmuring) You did these? Mm hmm. (murmuring) Honey, you definitely have a future ahead of you. You really think so? It was my freshman year. I saw this video on YouTube about this girl in Cambodia about my same age. Her life was just so different than mine. I felt guilty and compassion and angry. I wanted to do something to show her how loved and valued she is by God. I just didn't know what so I painted this. Well, I've been doing this a while and I can tell you right now that no survivor is going to let you paint her for a long, long time after you've met her. But I don't think that needs to stop you. I think you should serve at the Hope House regularly. In six months, we are having a gala event and I would love for you to create a painting for our spring auction. But not a painting of our women, a painting of you. A self portrait. A composite of your experience and how you've gone a little deeper, seeing things differently and how you've grown in ways that you didn't even anticipate. Definitely, yes. This is perfect, thank you. You can do this, Naomi. I believe in you. Some of us have known for a while what gifts God gave us and we've got big dreams of what we're going to do, an inner sense of what doing His work will look like. But when it seems like that vision is on pause or redirected, what do we do? When Moses was young, he saw a guy beating the crap out of someone else. Moses was so angered by this act of oppression that he killed the guy and buried his body in the sand. Maybe that guy did deserve to die, but instead of leading the Hebrews out of slavery, Moses had to run for his life to spend the next 40 years hiding in another country, doing what could have seemed like a boring common job. God did want to use him to save his people but as a hotheaded young person, Moses hadn't waited on the Lord. Maybe we are right in some of the ways we sense God has called us. But if we aren't patient, we might run out ahead of Him doing our calling in the wrong way or at the wrong time or panic and get stuck and fearful inaction. No matter where we find ourselves, this much is true. God is calling us to be on a mission with Him and calling us to die to ourselves. We can't do either of those things if we're not seeking out God's spirit, God's word and God's people. (soft music) Whiplash. Many of us have an idea of the trajectory God is going to take our lives and we're just waiting for it to start. But rather than changing the lives of the women at Hope House, they're changing mine. And whatever gift I have, God wants to include me in His mission. Missing out on art school can't stop that. Pressure's off. No fear of failure, no danger in success. It's God's power using me to bless me and bless others. (upbeat music)