I remember growing up my favorite part of going to the baseball fields with my dad was going to the playground. It was honestly a very unsafe playground, full of metal slides and merry-go-rounds that broke plenty of bones. But I went anyway and every time I would, I’d get on the jungle gym and loop my legs through, ponytails dangling, blood rushing into my head – staring at the world upside down. It wasn’t the most comfortable position, and definitely not the safest, yet I was enthralled with the idea of the world being turned on its head.
The other day, I was reading the book of Acts. Chapter 17 to be precise. Seeing the recounting of Paul as he travels to Thessalonica for the first time and then later writes 1 & 2 Thessalonians to them. In this reading there was a verse that jumped off the page at me and it said this: “When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, ‘These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too’”(v. 6 CSB).
These men who have turned the world upside down. Wow. What a powerful statement. The idea that a handful of men can turn the entire world on its head. A handful of men armed with the truth that is Christ Jesus. It occurred to me… has that ever been said of me? Has anyone looked at me as someone who shakes the world up so much that it’s upside down with the truth of Jesus?
Probably not. But from this moment on, I’m going to try my very best to channel my inner piggy-tail twelve-year-old and work my very hardest to be a world flipper. Someone who’s unashamed and unafraid to turn the world upside down.