Ask for Directions!

Greetings,

As I shared with you last post shortly after leaving the military Christine became pregnant.  That sounds funny doesn't it?  When I write those words, Christine became preganant, it sounds as if one day she woke up and found out that, from some sort of starnge happeneing, she was with child.  I know of only one miraculous story like that but that's another post at another time.  What I mean to write is that Christine and I found out, through actions that we were totally responsible for, she was pregnant.  People say that life is funny and I believe that is true.  What I don't believe is that life is hard.  I know from my own circumstances that we face hard things in our lives.  We face hard times, we face hard choices, and we face hard periods of life.  I don't, however believe that life is hard.  The reason I say that is because I believe that life is just life.  To describe it as hard compares my life to someone else's life and that is impossible to do.  Each one of our lives are individual.  They are made up of different components such as experiences and decisons that we make for ourselves.  No, life isn't hard it's just life.

I read a book recently and I can't remember the author and for that I apologize. The name of the book was People are Stupid and I Can Prove It!  It was a wonderful book that shared one simple truth, that people have what they ahve in life and are where they are in life because of one thing, their choices.  Now, I know what you're thinking;  I didn't choose to be sick, I didn't choose to be in that car accident and I would say you're right.  We don't choose all of the bad things that happen to us but we do choose how to react to them.

When we found out that Christine was pregnant we could have chosen to fear the future.  We could have said that we were destined to a life of poverty as I tried to finish out my school at Adams State.  We could have chosen to do that, but we didn't.  What we did decide to do was pray about it.  It was shortly after that we decided to move back to La Junta to be close to family as Christine went through the pregnancy.

Many people use the phrase "and luckily it all worked out".  I don't think luck had anything to do with our decision working out.  I think it had everything to do with God's will.  You see, I believe that the amount of circumstance that "work out" in our lives is directly proportinal to the amount of time we spend trying to stay in the will of God.  I mean, who better to go to and ask for directions than the one who created the path.  Who better to go to and ask for guidance than the one who created your journey.  Yes, the will of God is sometimes a scary place to be and you might not always feel safe, but you are safe.

Shortly after Christine and I moved back to La Junta God set us out on a journey of special magnificence.  It was shortly after we returned to La Junta that we began attending First Presbyterian Church of La Junta.  It was during that short amount of time that we were attending that I felt God calling me to minister to the youth of our church and our community.  Granted, I was new to the faith and had no earthly idea how to minister to anything not to mention anyone.  However, I found that God picks the strangest people to carry out His will.  Look at Moses, he loved to argue.  Look at David, he was an adulterer and a murderer.  Look at the disciples, they were just fishermen.  Yes, God likes the unnderdogs and I believe He likes them because when great things happen through those people the only answer to why it worked is because God made it work!  You see He gets the glory not the person.  I know way to many people in ministry who are in it for their own glory.  I wanted to make sure that never happened to me so I prayed that God would guide me in the His ministry to young people.

Well, to make a short story even longer I think I will wait for the next post to share with you the miraculous and, hilarious if I do say so, events of my introduction into youth ministry.  To be honest, it was the first time I really felt that God was truly guiding my steps.  Was it hard?  Absolutely, it was hard!  Was it scary?  You bet!  But it was the best thing I could have ever experienced.  And I am still experiencing it 20 years later.

I encourage you this day to look at your journey home.  Do you spend a lot of time complaing that life is hard?  If you do I challenge to change your thinking.  Life isn't hard, life is just life.  And I have found that placing your life in God's hands doesn't make it any easier, it's not suppose to.  What it does do is take the burden of major decision making and place it in the hands of the one who has already made all of the decisions.  He is not a puppet master and you are not His puppet.  What He is, however, is a proud parent who wants to see His children succeed.  So take this day to stop and ask for directions.  Guys, you will find that it is not as hard as it seems!  Until we meet again.


Blessings,


Derek