You know when you know that you know? Well, I know for sure, without a doubt, that God is doing amazing things and has been for some time! I know that God is using people in ways they don’t even know yet, for the good of others.
This year, I have been beginning again. I wonder how many times I will begin again. I don’t mean in daily routines, I mean in servitude. I mean in obedience. I mean, does God shake his head at me and count to three like I do my children when they don’t obey? Is that what happens in Heaven, when I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing down here? I really wonder.
I have been called to ministry. I have been called to journey with students to Jesus. I have been called. And yet, I have been hiding out from that calling ever since it caused problems in my marriage. Seems like a legitimate excuse to bail out of a ministry calling, right? Well, apparently not, since God hasn’t taken away my passion for youth ministry.
Recently, I have been in several situations where having a passion for youth has been a taxing and stressful gift. Guess what? I’m okay with that. I know some people would not be okay with that, but I am. I’ve been sitting and listening to kids scream and fight and struggle with life, and their inability to master the course in short order. I’m still sitting here. I haven’t run off yet.
That’s not to say that Beef hasn’t been mildly affected by my return to ministry. In fact, on Saturday, he has been distressed by it. But if there’s anything I know it is that God will make a way. He will make me a path, if I can just choose to stay on it. If I can go against everything I know, and say “No” once in a while, I think we’ll be okay. Even once in a while. I have to prove that after God, my family comes first, so that they will know that God doesn’t call us to love others so much that our family gets left behind.
In fact, I’ve preached on that before. Way back in 2000 in Maryland, I talked to our Women’s Bible Study about Following God’s Will. I told them then, that if God called me to move to Siberia, I would go. Even if my husband didn’t want to. Because I know that God would never break up my marriage to go to Siberia. God would make a way for my husband to go. Still, if my husband chose not to go, even at God’s beckoning, I would go. That would not be God breaking us up, but my husband.
Ministry is like that. Even when it’s not in Siberia. Even when it’s in little small town USA. When you’re called into ministry – whatever that looks like for you… you go. And sometimes, ministry comes to you.
I am beginning again. Facing down the gift/struggle that ministry is. I’d appreciate all the prayers I can get. I’d appreciate all the prayers for my family and marriage that I can get too. Because there’s going to be times when ministry cuts in. It hurts, but we can survive, with God’s mercy and grace.
© amysara and TheRFarm.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to amysara and TheRFarm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to amysara and TheRFarm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Momma Rich's 