The Power of “Why Not”
The year was 2019. Ryan was forcing himself to get out of bed to grind out another day working in the warehouse. Life was hard. The day would consist of a monotony of pulling orders, then packaging, mailing and shipping them. Freshly married with a newborn baby, Ryan was doing all he could to keep the family afloat. But he knew he was not using his true giftings. He knew the Lord had called him to be a worshipper and that he was meant to help teach and train others to step into worship. Yet, he needed to make money for his family to survive. What was he supposed to do?
When Ryan was four, his mother purchased a snare drum from a pawn shop and gave it to him for Christmas. Playing that drum was the genesis of Ryan’s musical journey. He loved it. He went on to receive many accolades in band and choir as he grew up. Music was his passion, and he dreamed of becoming a choir teacher like the teachers that had so deeply impacted him in high school. Then, in college, the Lord stirred a new dream in his heart.
“The Lord took that musical gifting and started to show me how He could use it. That desire of ‘I want to be a choir teacher,’ was actually ‘I want to help people engage in priestly ministry’ (through ministering to the Lord in worship),” said Ryan. “At the same time, when I was in college, the Lord was marking a lot of people on my campus [including me] to engage with the Great Commission and go to the 10-40 Window. When I initially said ‘yes’ to serving in the 10-40 Window, it was 2012. I had all of these dreams in my heart: I am going to pastor and care for people. I am going to engage as a singer and musician in the place of ministry and worship, and, one day, I am going to serve in some capacity in the 10-40 Window.”
Ryan was so marked that, for many nights, he found himself crying into the carpet for people he had never met in the 10-40 Window.
“I was able to engage in all of those things in some way, but it was never like, ‘this is my life.’ It was always, ‘I want to do all of those things, but this is so hard to get funded. I want to do all of those things, but it is so hard to stay encouraged.’ And, ‘actually, you need money to survive,” said Ryan. “So, I went into this formative season where I got completely knocked off of my destiny track and completely derailed my assignment. I was in such an emotionally broken spot. I was trying to put my life back together wondering, ‘what am I supposed to do with all of it?’ I was stuck in a packing station wondering, ‘God, where are you in all of this?’”
It was around this time when a friend from the MAPS community reached out to invite him and his family to the 2020 MAPS Global Annual Gathering (a worship and missions conference). Ryan and his wife had been a part of another prayer room in the past before this season of discouragement. When they received the invite, his first thought was, “why not?” So, they went.
“That Annual Gathering set the stuff in motion for a major life transition for us that we didn’t expect from just one night. It felt so simple and so normal. But it started the conversation in our family of ‘…what has God said over us, historically, for the past 10 to 15 years? What are we supposed to be doing with our lives?’,” said Ryan. “Things shifted for us. My wife started having dreams about this ministry. I was like, ‘I don’t know what is happening.’ I felt busted and bruised and discouraged.
Then, it was like that one night [at Annual Gathering]-boom-there was this shift in trajectory that was a course correction, almost. And looking back, we didn’t even have this on our radar until we attended that Annual Gathering.”
After discussing it for some time together, Ryan and his wife took the leap and moved to Richmond the following summer: May 1st of 2021. Ryan was offered a position at MAPS Global to lead worship and train others in worship.
That Fall, Ryan found himself back at Annual Gathering, but this time, leading worship on the stage. He looked out over the crowd of people and shared his heart.
“I said, ‘I don’t know who [in this room] is where I was last year, but I was stuck in a warehouse packing boxes, just wondering ‘how is God going to use me.’ It was one seemingly insignificant night that shifted the trajectory for us,’” said Ryan.
After sharing, Ryan prayed over everyone in the room, believing that there would be many whose lives would be shifted - not only at that Annual Gathering, but at all of the gatherings to come, as well.
“Those people that we talk about - the bruised reeds and the faintly burning wicks - those people that are like, ‘you know, I need a moment with the Lord, because I don’t even know what He is going to do with my life,’ the Lord can really just use a moment at the Gathering to shift their entire life back to what He has for them,” said Ryan.
Today, Ryan, his wife and his two children are not only walking out their calling at MAPS Global, but are on track, and have the opportunity, to step into the 10-40 Window for long-term missions work in the Arab Gulf, which has been a dream 15 years in the making.
“It is crazy to fathom the shift that happened from, ‘sure, why not? I’ll show up,’” said Ryan. “It’s amazing what God can do from little moments like that to shake up your whole life and get you back in the place that He wants you to be. It’s so significant.”
Are you burnt out, or desiring to step back into belief for the promises the Lord has spoken over your life? Maybe, like Ryan, you will find the Lord shifting your trajectory at Annual Gathering. You are invited to come and spend that time with Him at this year’s Annual Gathering!