Trendsetting with God by Hayley Solich

A friend of mine, Louise Barton, shared with me her revelation that God is about as 'cutting edge' as you can get and I have to agree.  She pointed out that he was setting trends right back in the days of Noah when He told him to build an ark.  So this got me really thinking about how God works in us and through us to create new waves of innovation and community trends.

Here are some of the standout and less obvious trends that I have identified from the stories in the Bible and this is by no means a comprehensive list...

Adam and Eve, through shame, introduced clothing.  What a shame - we probably all would have been a lot happier not knowing what nakedness was or feeling embarrassed about our bodies.

Moses introduced glory times with God.

Isaac introduced genetically modified sheep - it's true…he manipulated the gene pool to produce superior sheep.

Essau introduced fur coats.

Joseph introduced dream interpretation as a means of getting out of jail. 

David introduced slings and rocks as tools of war, not to mention dancing in your jocks in worship!

Elijah introduced retreat weekends - he took time out in a cave.

Saul introduced lay ministry - anyone can have a go at prophesying.

Jonathon introduced brotherly love.

Job introduced being ruined and rebuilt by God - real men don't question God!

And if we skip forward, Jonah set the trend of whale transportation, Daniel of dynamic leadership, Ezekiel of freaky prophetic action taking and Hosea of marrying 'below your station in life'.

Solomon introduced work/life balance with his "all is vanity…a time for everything…"

And Jesus set new trends in friendship, healing, tax collection, fishing techniques, weather control, winemaking, religious attitudes, resurrection power…just to name a few!

I'd say we had some very creative forerunners, wouldn't you?

If you were to look at your life to this point, what have you introduced?  Some of these characters introduced things that were really helpful.  Others, not so helpful.

We have resident within us the same ability to create as God.  What we often lack is faith.  As I was away in Esperance this weekend I watched the movie 'Faith Like Potatoes' twice.  It was so inspirational - if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend that you watch it and it was even better the second time through as I got to pick up on all the nuances of the characters.  And this movie showed me how important it is to just trust in God for creative miracles.

As you are sitting down to write your next whatever, think about that thought.  What can you create with God that is miraculous?  What can you introduce that is going to be powerful?  How can you extend your faith, trusting in God, to give you something that will be of benefit to others?

If J K Rowlings can be 'discovered', published and influence generations with her witchcraft books based on 'magic', how much more could we be influencing the world with our truly miraculous, God-powered trendsetting?

Hayley Solich

Hayley Solich is the Publishing Editor of Golden Pen for Christian Women Magazine and also Golden Pen Magazine.  Hayley has been writing professionally for the past 20 years in both the public sector and in private industry.  Hayley's business, All Purpose Communications Pty Ltd focuses around helping people to create products and services for the marketplace and includes all aspects of publishing, communications, graphic design, editing and web marketing.  Hayley's ministry is called Heart Called Ministries and she is an itinerant Worship Minister and Preacher.