Students reminded about their story ‘retold in Christ’

Before even beginning to deliver a spoken word, pastor Isaac Adams sang the chorus of the song, “In Christ Alone.” He acknowledged, “That’s good news. The best news in the universe,” as he took the stage at the University of Mobile.

As students gathered on Nov. 5 for the last chapel service of the fall semester, Adams shared a message entitled “Your story retold in Christ.”

Adams serves as the lead pastor of Iron City Church in Birmingham, Alabama. He has served overseas with the International Mission Board and has been involved with ministries like Together for the Gospel, CROSS Conference and The Front Porch. In 2017, Adams founded United? We Pray, a ministry focused on prayer around racial reconciliation — especially within the church.

“As I thought and prayed over what to share today, I want to confess,” Adams said. “I want to confess a weakness that maybe some of you in this room share, and here it is. I have a deep-seated fear of doing it wrong and by ‘doing it wrong,’ I basically mean everything. I’m a perfectionist.

He continued, “Where this perfectionism comes, I don’t really know. All I know is that being a perfectionist presents some complications when your job as a pastor is to be around imperfect people. It presents some challenges when you look in the mirror in the morning, and what you see isn’t what you hoped it would be, and it gets really burdensome when the narratives you tell yourself about yourself get really negative. This perfectionism will tear you up because the story you and the enemy tell yourself accuses you of your constant short-comings and mistakes — the fear of getting it wrong. It’s the ghost that’s haunted me ever since I was a boy.”

Adams shared about his past fears of middle school basketball games and the pressures facing that situation, while addressing present fears of speaking in front of college students at the chapel students and feeling the same pressures from the past.

“I’m confessing this because I can’t be the only child of God who has ever felt pressure from expectations, whether it’s other people’s or your own,” Adams said. “Pressure from the fear of failure. Pressure of being embarrassed and being ashamed. The pressure of messing up, and the pressure of not measuring up to the standard of social media. What can be said to the man or the woman who is afraid of getting it wrong? … Here’s something I think the Lord would say to them, to you and to me: ‘Your story sounds different in heaven than it does in your mind.’ Our version of our story is not quite accurate, and God is writing a better one. Praise be to God, He is writing a better one. This is the good news we have the privilege of reveling in today.”

Adams encouraged students to turn to Genesis 16.

“We see an account that tells us of a man’s mistake,” Adams said. “An account that tells us how a man got it wrong. We see the man’s name is Abram, and in the chapter before, the Lord has made a covenant with Abram. I think we would all agree with what Abram did here is a sin in the flesh as opposed to waiting on Him, but before we get too hard on Abram, let’s look in the mirror. We too have promises from God that we get impatient. The Lord promises in Psalm 138 that He will fulfill His purpose for us, but we get anxious and try to take matters into our own hands.”

Adams concluded his message by extending an invitation by calling students to come to Jesus so He can rewrite and redeem their life story.

“When God calls you up to go get in the game like my old basketball coach called me up, go play and have fun,” Adams said. “Airball a few for Jesus. It’s never been about scoring with Him anyway. He can score just fine on His own. It’s not about scoring with God —  rather, He delights in us simply trying. He delights in you simply trying by faith, and in heaven, you will be known as one who scored, even though you airballed because you did not waiver according to the promise that is in His Son.”