Nikole Hahn Archives - Nikole Hahn

Be Kinder Than You Feel

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”

My focus zeroed in on “…because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” When we respond in anger online, does that comment, private message, or post “…produce the righteousness that God desires?”

Being online gives people the feeling of invincibility. Between you and the person leaving a comment or posting a post is this false sense of anonymity. It’s often the case people will says things they wouldn’t say in person on social media, email, or text. It’s a good idea to slow down, pause, and ask yourself if your words will “…produce the righteousness God desires” in that person.

Social Media can give you the feeling of having your own personal paparazzi. It’s an incredible sense of power to have your own platform, to post whatever you want, from hating your job to the person you met at the grocery store; to the feeling of thinking you are the most important person in the universe. Serving in social media means I am far more aware of the power of my words, being in a ministry role.

The other parts of the two verses are equally important:

“…Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…”

Being glad when you’ve offended someone or taking pleasure in someone else’s hurt or misfortune is not the way and is dangerous ground to be on. Using your words as sucker punches tears down relationships, even pushes people away from the church. It says more about you than it does about the person you are angry with. So, be slow to speak and slow to allow yourself to become angry. Listen and ask questions instead, or “walk away” from the discussion.

What is most important to you? That you win an argument or that you win a person?

A colleague shared a quote from his daughter the other day, “Be kinder than you feel.” In speaking to my husband, I mentioned to him how grateful I am for this role and how I simply can’t share everything on my mind. In seeking to change how people use social media, I realized we should all have to exercise that kind of caution and feel that kind of burden. Billions of people don’t know Jesus, and those billions are online.

A Shift in Attitude

Read Isaiah 38

“Then, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, and said, ‘Please, O Lord, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly.” – Isaiah 38:2-3

God told Hezekiah he would die and to set his house in order. Upon hearing this, Hezekiah wept bitterly. He turned his face to the wall to pray privately. The commentary discusses the difference in how Christians pray today under the New Covenant.

We have the assurance of Salvation, whereas the Old Testament required sacrifices, and the afterlife was not clearly understood. Death was naturally feared. Hezekiah is said to pray, saying how good he’s been and pleading for mercy, and this is said to be a normal way in the Old Testament to approach the Lord. Today, we pray differently.

“We pray in the name of Jesus (John 16:23-24), not in the name of who we are or what we have done.” (David Guzik, Blue Letter Bible)

God answered Hezekiah’s prayer and gave him 15 more years to do better as a man of faith and to set his house in order. This reminded me of the many times we are given mercy rather than consequences, but do we see it?

As a believer, I try to appreciate those moments of mercy, not because I deserve it or because I’m such a great person (I’m not), but because He loves me and is wise. He loves you, too. He loved you all the way to the cross. Maybe God’s acts of mercy in your life are because of something He sees in your future or someone else’s future. Mercy may be more beneficial in some way than the consequences.

Trust the Lord for the outcome amid terrible circumstances or wrestling with the aftermath of bad decisions. God gave Hezekiah 15 more years to do the right thing and get his house in order. Not many of us are given that kind of second chance. Death can come instantly. It’s too late to make better decisions or to accept Christ once death comes. Even on a Roman cross, a man can repent, and Jesus will accept Him into heaven at the last minute.

But the other one made him shut up: “Have you no fear of God? You’re getting the same as him. We deserve this, but not him—he did nothing to deserve this. Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.” – Luke 23:40-42 (MSG)

Pray in humility.
Pray with a healthy fear of God, that He is holy.
Trust the Lord. Pray for Him to help you with this.

Related Verses:

Verses regarding the man on the cross, click here.

Dressing The Inner Woman

Women put a lot of effort into their outer appearance. When I try on a new outfit in the dressing room, the mirror tricks me into believing I really do look great in it, but the mirror at home will tell a different story. The right outfit gives us confidence, but it will never dispel the voices in our heads that say we’re not good enough. That’s where we need to work on our inner woman and study Scripture.

Using the right words in our heads is as important as what we write online, in our journals, or for devotional pieces like this one. We will read them again and again, the words imprinting upon our hearts, and Facebook will remind us of posts from a year or more ago.

Proverbs 18:21 ESV says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” The previous verse talks about making a living off words. This verse speaks to the power of words. Words can help another person find the confidence to serve or totally crush someone from their full potential. Likewise, the words we hear in our heads about ourselves are not valid. When I feel anxiety or put myself down, I must confront those words. Jesus loves us so much as women, and women were the first witnesses of the empty tomb.

We are creatures that crave deep connections. It’s no wonder that most women are active on social media. Our words matter to ourselves and others, whether in person, online, or in private conversation. That’s why it’s so important to pay closer attention to how we dress the inner woman. Go ahead, fix your hair, perfect your make-up, and wear an outfit that exudes confidence to people around you, but don’t forget your heart.

Start the day reading Scripture and write something positive on your social media. Let this imprint your heart so it’s more than just surface confidence that radiates from you, but the light of our Lord instead.

Starting a New Chapter #Missions #Church

Unlike other jobs, I give notice to Solid Rock Christian Fellowship after almost 11 years with a heart heavy with so many emotions. I know that where I am going is where God wants me to be in the interim before I launch as a Social Media person with WorldVenture. Other doors closed this week, too. Not that I can go into any detail, but an old life is fading and a new life is beginning.

Change is something a person can count on. It’s a constant. I’ve experienced so much change the last couple of years. It leaves me breathless. Even as I watch winter fade into spring, I am excited for the future. When I sing songs in church, I hear them differently now. It begs the question: Are you really living on faith? I mean, really?

Do you give until it hurts?
Do you step through open doors in your life not knowing why, but doing it anyway because God opened that door? You risk awkward silences and disaster stepping through; OR you risk blessing yourself and others in the process.
Do you go without to make something God wants happen? Or are you only willing to serve within your comfort zone?

Lastly, are you really impassioned about sharing your faith? I mean, really? I ask this because when I mention the online world and how people can funnel that passion through this tool to share the Gospel, I get one common response: “I don’t like change.” This usually follows after, “I hate Facebook.”

“I hate change,” is a barrier I come up against time and time again. It’s not just a barrier to what I do, but it is a barrier that keeps people from learning how to use the online world as a tool to build relationships and share their faith. Social media is simply a conversation. It’s like meeting someone in the hallway and asking, “How are you?” And instead of walking away after a short answer, staying to listen.

The church isn’t dying. The church has a communication problem. This problem is keeping the church in a building and causing people who are online to sound like angry Americans because the church isn’t learning how to train their people how to use the online world in appropriate ways or teaching how to contextualize responses to another person’s culture.

I would love to hear how your church is training your congregation to serve online. If you aren’t training them, why not?

I Need a Silent Night #Christmas

While Amy Grant sings,

“I need a silent night, a holy night
To hear an angel voice through the chaos and the noise
I need a midnight clear, a little peace right here
To end this crazy day with a silent night,”

…I am driving to work. The rain is falling in gentle sheets and the clouds lay low over the city. My windshield sparkles like Christmas lights, reflecting the headlights of oncoming cars in the rain drops. It’s been a crazy week, and as we near 2017, I can say that 2016 has been hard. A mixed bag of blessings and the death of our dog.

My husband and I have had many conversations in 2016 that sometimes go deep into the night, discussing ministry, being a husband to a missionary, and accepting that, from this point on, nothing will ever be the same. 2016 changed both of us, and I am glad to say, we are growing together as we embrace this new future. As I drive to work, I look over to my left through the wet drivers-side window.

Predawn light hits the low clouds, making a beautiful mixture of pearl gray and dark gray shapes hovering above the casino.

“Thank you, Lord,” I whisper as I focus again on the road. A friend told my husband to take in new experiences, breathe, and remember. Close your eyes, smell the smells, experience and feel the moment you are in. An Andy Andrews webinar said to notice the little things in your life, like the beauty of those clouds and the different shades of gray marked by the glimmer of dawn.

“To end this crazy day with a silent night,” One of the song lyrics say. Silence is overlooked. Being still is almost forgotten. My cat has the being still thing down.

As I make the left turn down a dark side street, I recall him sitting on the arm of our easy chair last weekend, mesmerized by the lights of the tree. He stood there for ten minutes, not moving, being still.

Then, he made me laugh when his little white paw carefully came toward a dangling bulb. Even he has his limits.

This and next week is the deep calm before the rush. As I pull into a parking place and shut off the engine, I look towards my work place. My ministry ends the moment I walk into work and begins again when I go to lunch, when I leave to go home, and when the weekend comes. Investing in online relationships to develop them into something meaningful is time consuming. There’s an urgency here. The church is behind in the digital age. Much work has to be done!

This weekend I am creating two videos on my new desktop: “Miracle on the Mountain,” and a video specific for a church in Chandler (A heart-felt thanks to the folks at Solid Rock Christian Fellowship who contributed to the Christmas Offering. My portion of it helped me get a much needed new desktop that can handle the heavy workloads of online ministry).

I plan on baking this weekend, too. My Christmas Day could be a white Christmas with fresh cinnamon rolls in the oven made from scratch.

Our Christmas was different this year (Grand Canyon backpacking trip) so there are no presents under the tree. Nothing can top the gift God gave us in Luke 2:

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Chaos and craziness will melt into Christmas peace by the time the weekend arrives.

I can’t promise I’ll be still, but I can promise to be in the moment.

Support So Far

I am at 12%. Please pray for me to get to 15% by the end of November.

TRC Magazine Editing Frenzy

I’ve spent all weekend keeping appointments and editing TRC Magazine. It’s 8:20 p.m. on a Sunday night and I finally logged out of TRC Magazine.

This is a ministry that I started before I become a missionary with WorldVenture. I contacted a few friends in 2012 and we met in Anthem over salsa and chips to discuss the future TRC Magazine ezine. It’s 2016, and we’ve been through a few editors and writers since its inception.

Volunteers are like that. They are not paid staff, but people who are serving online from all over the world. What I offer our volunteers is access to our social media and cross-networking in exchange for their work as a writer and ministry leader. They come from all walks of life and are amazing people.

We publish another edition tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. MST. I still feel as if I forgot something even after I log out, but that’s me. I’ve spent so long on a work that finally being done is difficult to accept. I’ve been so busy getting this done that I’ve neglected this site.

Another week playing catch up again, but that’s what it means to be a missionary appointee still in support raising mode with active ministry and a full time job. I will have weeks where I am on time and weeks where I am behind, like this week. The most important thing got done though.

Meanwhile, I’ll be back to blogging this week, but not tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Amazon Says No

For all of you who blog for books, Amazon just released new community guidelines:

“Book authors and publishers may continue to provide free or discounted copies of their books to readers, as long as the author or publisher does not require a review in exchange or attempt to influence the review.”

Amazon’s move follows a string of lawsuits against companies who were paid to post positive reviews on their site and cheat Amazon’s system by using reviews to make a book seem like it was one of the top rankings. Over the years, some authors have tried to manipulate the system in the name of marketing. Some secular self-publishing sites even forbid anything less than a three star rating all in the name of “helping” each other sell more books, instead of improving their writing.

Book reviewers are trying to be optimistic. However, most publishing, book reviewing companies, and blog tours require a review in exchange for a free book. This is against Amazon’s new community guidelines. Only those in their Vine program are allowed to post reviews. While book reviewers remain angry with this new move, it is Amazon’s right to protect the integrity of their review system.

I urge you as Christians to also honor this system. Here are some suggestions for posting reviews on Amazon or another retail site:

Free Book, But No Review Required. After you write your review, post this below the review: “I have received a free book, but the publisher has not required me to post this review. I do this on my own.” This satisfies the FCC and more than likely, Amazon.
Free Book in Exchange for a Review. Post on other retail sites. Publishers aren’t usually requiring an Amazon review.
Buy The Book You Want to Review. Now you are a customer. You can review the book.

The FCC requires the following on all blog posts (use your own variation): “Free book received in exchange for a review.”

Instead of being angry at Amazon, let’s shine as Christians. Let’s respect their guidelines and continue to use book reviewing as a way to influence and reach a lost world with the Gospel.