Dark Horse Rising

History has some pretty interesting stories to tell. Stories about the dark horse who came from behind and no one saw it coming. We could talk about people like Steve Jobs, Susan Boyle, Michael Oher, James Braddock, Erin Brockovich, Nelson Mandela, Kurt Warner and J.K. Rowling, just to name a few. We read their bios, cheer their teams on, or watch their movies just hoping to capture their unique brand of never-give-up and translate it into our own situation.

One of these dark horse stories is the story of Mary Magdalene. Maybe you've read this story so often that her strength and courage have been lost in familiarity, but take another look. Mary Magdalene enters the story of Jesus when He casts seven demons out of her. That life-changing moment transformed her world in a bigger way than any infomercial has ever dared to promise, sans ginsu knives! She went from Me, Myself, and Irene to Oprah Winfrey in one ecstatic moment.  Her purpose becomes singular: support Jesus at any cost. She becomes part of the entourage and donates money to the ministry. Her whole life revolves around her Savior as she watches Him day after day perform cataclysmic transformations on people, just like the one that wrecked her world. It was mesmerizing! It was heaven on earth!

And then it all went wrong.

Jesus died and Mary Magdalene’s life didn't turn out the way she'd envisioned it. The purpose she'd dedicated herself to, the cause she poured all her time and money into, the solid ground she had metaphorically built her house on all came crashing down in a landslide.

Anyone who's experienced that landslide gets a jarring welcome to the transitional land of Now What. The first steps into this monotonous territory question everything that led us to this place: I thought I was living a good life, I thought I was on the right track, I thought I had what it takes, I thought I had made all the right connections, I thought...

"But the landslide brought me down..."

For three days Mary Magdalene must have been in agony. Did she eat? Did she sleep? Did she feel like a fool? Those three days may have been an eternity, but Ms. Magdalene didn't give up. It takes courage to keep traveling a difficult road all the way to the end. You have to follow your gut and not your eyes. You have to follow your heart and not your head. Passion has to weigh more than the opinion of people. That's how legends are made. That's how world changers are forged.

Mary Magdalene followed her heart to visit the dead person who embodied her dead purpose. It's hard to give up a life purpose because, really: how do you find a new one? She was stumbling around Now What when she came face to face with the risen Jesus. Funny thing is, at first she didn't know Him. She was wrapped up trying to find that beat up Jesus. She was consumed with tying up the loose ends of her unraveled life. She was headlong in her hopeless cause and didn't even recognize the upgraded version of her Purpose.

Jesus Himself had experienced a cataclysmic transformation. For starters, He was no longer dead, but alive! Mary Magdalene recognized Him as soon as He said her name and her life was wrecked again, in the best way possible. Her purpose wasn't deceased, but it was drastically different. Her life's work wasn't over, it was just beginning! She doesn't go down in history as a failure: she is famous on Earth and in Heaven!

Life has many transitions and not all of them are pleasant.  But it's not all for nothing. It's not an embarrassing loss. It's not always going to be this way. Your future isn't going to look like your past. All those choices you made that brought you to where you are: they were the best choice at that time, with what you knew to be true at that moment. We do our best and sometimes it looks like a complete disaster, but keep going. Keep traveling that road and see where it goes. It may not make sense or be the popular choice. But if you travel the course that God has put before you, no matter how difficult and uncomfortable, you may end up being the dark horse to those who thought they knew you. The dark horse that was forged into a world changer!