Good Trouble
I was sharing on a zoom call some of the things I had been up to, when someone said ‘sounds like you’ve been busy causing good trouble.’ I thought ‘good trouble, yep, that sounds about right!’ So often working through life’s challenges requires some tough choices about what we will say and do, and executing these choices stirs up good trouble before the breakthrough comes.
Women can be really good at causing good trouble: bringing a challenge to the status quo in the interests of the common good and God’s righteousness. Stepping forward in a crisis to help others, speaking up and refusing to be silent, speaking truth to power, and being resilient in the face of microaggressions are provocative acts that can be costly but are necessary if we want to be part of redemptive change.
In the Bible, women often get into good trouble. In the Old Testament we read in Judges 4 about the prophetess Deborah leading the nation into battle and Jael, a woman who lived in the tents, whose quick thinking and decisive action brought victory. And then there is Esther putting her own life at risk to intervene in the political situation of her day to advocate for her people the Jews survival.
In the New Testament, Mary gets herself into good trouble when she says to the Angel Gabriel ‘I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true.’ Luke 1: 38 NLT. As does the woman at the well when she abandons her water jug and goes into her village inviting the people to meet the Messiah (John 4: 1- 42), evangelising and stirring up a crowd.
Jesus’ ministry to the lost and the vulnerable also stirred up good trouble as people were healed and set free. His presence was provocative, causing the political pressure to build in the weeks leading up to his crucifixion. The crucifixion itself was good trouble as Isaiah prophecies, ‘But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that bought us peace was on him and by his wounds we were healed.’(Isaiah 53: 5, NLT). The crucifixion was costly for Jesus, but liberating for us, good trouble.
In Margot Lee Shetterly’s book ‘Hidden Figures’, she tells the story of a group of black female mathematicians at NASA, known as human computers. These women had the brightest minds of their generation and they used their gifts to challenge oppressive work practices as they made space travel possible. The story reminds us that ‘genius has no race, strength has no gender and courage no limit.’ I pray that we would be stirred to make good trouble and be part of God’s redemptive change. Let us use our God given genius, strength and courage even when it costs to bring liberating challenge and change, some good trouble.
Read the book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (2016) or watch the film and be inspired.
Rev. Michelle Nunn
Lead Pastor Nantwich Elim Church & Member of Elim’s National Leadership Team
Regional Lead of The Company
