And on April 21 God said, "Let there be A Joyful Noise".

NOW before any of you continue scrolling or if you are only skimming this (which I hope you aren't) - STOP RIGHT HERE and watch this - http://youtu.be/u9PmMwSb1YQ

Okay, now that we have all been provoked into thinking so many thoughts and have had our day shattered with the goodness of life, let's continue.

A Joyful Noise is the introduction of a wave of ministry that was created by a current Belmont sophomore, Caroline Sims and her team. The idea began a year ago during a season of Lent when Caroline started sharing what she was learning from scripture and God on her Snapchat story. For her it seemed to be a way God was allowing her to be comfortable with sharing about Him and a period of inward growth but in reality it made people that were sprawled out from all corners of Caroline's life share their curiosity and testimonies with her. With this she wanted to keep the conversation going, which is where A Joyful Noise comes in.

What makes this movement so different from others is that instead of preaching live to an audience or in the walls of a church, Caroline is putting the gospel in people's faces, getting up close and personal, by using the very thing that isolates us the most: social media.

Like any of you I can scroll through to the depths of an Instagram, spend an excessive amount of time thinking of captions, and click through endless amounts of Facebook photos with the best of them. Though, while doing any of those mindless and time consuming acts that are deemed to be "SOCIAL" media, I have found that as a result I have removed myself from conversations, from listening, and from being present with people I love. Honestly, sometimes this occurs even without the draw of social media.

This is what A Joyful Noise touches upon.

This Youtube channel harnesses the power technology and social media holds over us and instead it is using it to create community. Caroline's main belief in this ministry is that it is important to talk WITH people instead of at them and that this channel be not about convincing the audience about the love of God but connecting with them instead. A Joyful Noise strives to stir up conversation, to ignite relationships both with God and with people in your life, to put the social back into social media.

Now, I have watched this Introduction video of this ministry probably a good ten(or twenty) times now and each time this line is what catches my attention -

"We like fear. Fear is safe. Fear is familiar. Love is not."

And each time I need a minimum of 18.7 seconds for that to sink in.

As we get older I think we all expect fear to evaporate because there are no more monsters under the bed or ghosts in our closet. We believe fear is a concept only involved in our younger years or associate it as a sign of weakness.

Although, in reality, fear is our safety blanket to protect ourselves from being vulnerable. We are scared of someone seeing we have a zit, of not matching what a magazine claims to be the "right" size, of not living up to expectations we have or others have of us, of being ourselves, and of being what we are called to be.

But when did our hearts become an imperfection we are trying to cover up?

I am truly getting tired of covering everything I deem as "not good enough". I am tired of muffling my voice and removing myself from conversations. I am tired of tripping over everything in the darkness. I am tired of doing what society encourages as acceptance, when I have already been accepted.

I am now ready to be messy.

I am ready to be so publicly broken you could call me Humpty Dumpty. I am ready to have love be something that is familiar. I am ready to accept fearlessness and fall. I am ready to create a community with God and God's children. I am ready to finally awaken from sleepwalking through this life. I am ready to dance in the freedom of the light.

So Caroline, I speak for myself and others when I say - Thank you.

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:5)

P.S. The future for A Joyful Noise holds more videos (lesson/topic specific, audience specific, etc.) but Caroline and her team don't want it to end there. They are hoping their vision becomes MORE - so pray for the expansion of this ministry and, in the wise words of Caroline, that people hear "a joyful noise amidst the white noise of the world".

Follow A Joyful Noise -

Instagram: @ajoyfulinsta

Youtube: A Joyful Noise