One lovely evening, in the small space of a few calmly spoken sentences my husband managed to turn my entire world upside down. As he announced his plan to leave the safety of his corporate position to enter the ministry, I could feel my throat tighten. Hot tears stung my eyes and burned their way down my cheeks. Anger, fear, and frustration fought against each other, pounding painfully in my temples. My entire body reacted to that news in such a way that I can still feel the pain of that moment whenever I bring up the memory.
I am the product of a very happy parsonage. We were a loving ministry family with no horror stories of dysfunctional pastor's children. The only problem I ever had with entering the ministry was that I did not want to be poor. After John and I had been married several years, I felt that all my dreams had come true, and I often remarked that God had given me all my heart's desires. He really had smiled upon the pastor's daughter who long ago had mapped out her entire life with one underlying prayer: "Lord, please don't make me marry a pastor!"
Friends in the neighborhood, noticing my distress, urged me to let John go alone. That was never an option I considered because I had made a vow to go the distance, not only with the man I married, but also with the Lord of my life. So I went along with my husband. I had, after all, promised to love him for better or worse.
That was over a decade ago. Since then, God has opened many wonderful ministry opportunities for both of us. He has made it very clear that all along, He had been grooming me for the position that was His perfect will for my life. However, when it all began, I could not see any good in this new direction. Yet, I knew I had to accept the Savior's will for us. And, I knew that there was only one place to go for help.
I went to the Lord's instruction book and looked in the New Testament, hoping to find a role model. There I took a very close look at the example set by our Savior and it soon became apparent that there was only one thing to do. I would have to blindly follow His example.
I want to make something very clear here. This was a process, and the Lord and I had to work long and hard at it. So often, my only comfort came from the fact that the soon-to-be crucified Christ took time out in the garden to notify His Father that He would not object to a change in plans. If Jesus could be that brutally honest with His Father, then surely He would understand my struggle with this call!
Going the distance with God is a process. It is a commitment we must make daily. It is trusting the Lord who called us to keep un on the route He has planned.
I found encouragement in Hebrews, chapters eleven and twelve. The secret to going the distance with the Lord is so simple, yet so difficult. All we need is blind faith! We must be willing to "throw off everything that hinders us and run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us" (Hebrews 12:1) I love those words! The path has been marked out ahead of time. The Savior has gone ahead of us and mapped out the route.
I could identify with so many of the heroes of the well-known "faith chapter," Hebrews eleven. Like Abraham, I'd been called to a place I hadn't planned to inhabit. Like Moses, I had been chosen by God to give up the finer things of my life. I, too, had been called upon to leave the comfort of my own "Egypt" because of the invisible hand of the same Almighty God who has called those great heroes of the faith. And as I read that chapter, it became clear that going the distance with this call was indeed something I could accomplish with God's help.
Another truth that hit me squarely in the face as I studied the "faith chapter", was that I had really given up very little compared to what some of the heroes of our faith had experienced. I had not been called to suffer physical torture. Yes, I would always have to face "jeers" from people who opposed the call of God on my life, however, growing up in the parsonage has prepared me for that. This was about the only affliction I could identify, and my heart was humbled as I realized that it was not such an enormous task to which we'd been called.
So I came to see our call in ministry as the act of a loving God, instead of some great and horrible punishment inflicted upon us for some unknown reason. With great effort at first, I began to accept the gift that God was holding out to our family. I made a commitment to get up early every day in order to spend time in prayer, and that was the turning point. The more I prayed, the more I saw the needs of the people to whom God had called us.
Going the distance with God is a process. It is a commitment we must make daily. It is trusting the Lord who called us to keep on the route He has planned. Going the distance has it's rewards, too. They may not be the kind we take to the bank, but that's fine with me. My children know the God of their parents. I have watched as they have learned to walk in truth. They have learned first-hand that once you commit to going the distance with God, He will be there for you. We may not be wealthy by the world's standards, but oh, how rich we are in the things of our Lord!
Going the distance means that sometimes the path God places us on is not the one we mapped out for ourselves. My husband and I had been so good at making plans for our future. We were always careful to include the familiar phrase, "If God will." When God called us to task regarding those words, we were required to go where He sent us. Our experience has taught us that our Savior truly knows the plans He has for us. They are plans to prosper and not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). Going the distance is so much easier when we remember that we have been called to serve by a loving Lord who only has our best interests at heart!
~ By Darlene Gibson