Rashawn Copeland joins Amber to discuss how God entered His mess when he was shot, when his football dreams were crushed, and when he was contemplating suicide.  Now, he shares the love of Jesus online, because it is where Jesus met him.

When God Enters Your Mess Questions Rashawn and Amber Discuss:

1. (5:10) Share a little of your childhood with us.
2. (8:28) You were a successful high school football player with scholarship offers from Division 1 schools, but at age 17 those plans were thwarted.  What happened?
3. (14:50) After surviving being shot, you didn’t stick with God.  What happened?
4. (24:06) You’re in L.A., you’re the hype man for Soulja Boy, you’re wrapped up in money, sex, and fame, but a difficult break up left you feeling worthless and alone.  Will you tell our listeners about that experience and how God met you in your mess?
5. (30:55) What do you feel was so different about that time vs. when you were laying on the concrete?
6. (32:50) You were contemplating suicide when you read the Facebook post that included Romans 8: 38-39. In that moment you surrendered your life to Jesus.  What happened when you woke up the next day?
7. (37:37) Why do you keep staying where you are and preaching the love of God?
8. (39:49)Why did you write Start Where You Are?

When God Enters Your Mess Quotes to Remember:

“I would say I’m a minister who writes and a writer who preaches. I spend a lot of time online, social media, sharing the gospel, the love of God, through content and experiences…with folks.”

“If we want to reach people right now, with the greatest message of all time, which is the gospel, we need to meet them, not where we want them to be which is through our church doors…, but right where they are, where their attention is online. And I feel indebted to do so, because God met me there.”

“I was at the darkest, lowest, messiest moment of my life. And all I could do is cry out. My coaches weren’t there. My friends weren’t there. My brothers weren’t there. The girl wasn’t there. The only one I could call out too was God.”

“I was a hypocrite. I had the athletic side of Rashawn and then on the outside, I would run with the boys in the streets doing all the reckless stuff.”

“I was getting really successful on the outside. I had a home in the valley, a G-wagon and the “girl of my dreams”….but it was all surface level.  On the inside I was miserable.  Outside I looked successful, but I was miserable.”

“David…he said, Let these bones you have crushed, rejoice. Sometimes God breaks us in order to save us.”

“I get on my knees when I get into this darkroom and I put this pistol in my mouth, I’m sweating. I’m shaking. I’m asking…myself, ‘Am I ready to do this?” Two things came to mind….The first thing, if I were to shoot myself, and I were to die….am I ready to meet my maker? The second thing, if I were to shoot myself, and I were to live, I would have to go through that agony, that pain that I went through when I was a young boy.”

“I started to read her posts and this is what changed everything for me, it said, ‘Oh, how wide, how deep, how vast the love of God is, and nothing in all creation can separate us from this love this found in Christ Jesus.’ I was reading and reading. I began weeping and weeping. I unloaded my heavy soul that night and I cried out to God, ‘What must I do to know this love that you’re talking about in Your son Jesus’?”

“He met me right where I was in my mess. That’s why I wrote the book Start Where You Are, because He met me, not where I pretended I was or where I wish I was, but right where I was, broken and sinful in a dark place.”

“I can’t go anywhere. I am a bond servant. My life has been laid down. I no longer live, but as Christ lives me, and the life that I now live is by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me….So I can’t go anywhere.”

“God has mercy for your mess. And no matter who you are, if you’re listening, you’re not too broken to be fixed, you’re not to unworthy to be love and you’re not too far to be reached.”

Scripture References

• Psalm 40
• Psalm 1: 1-2 Blessed is the one
      who does not walk in step with the wicked
  or stand in the way that sinners take
      or sit in the company of mockers,
  ² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
      and who meditates on his law day and night.
• Eph. 3: 17-19 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
• Luke 9:23
• Proverbs 19:21
• Mark 2:17

Resources Mentioned:

• Book: Start Where You Are by Rashawn Copeland

Related Episodes:

• 88: Taylor Schumann | Other Side of Surviving A School Shooting
• 102: Christopher Yuan | Transformation & Holy Sexuality

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