God Calling…

I have been thinking a great deal about our upcoming Annual Conference, and I have to admit I have been thinking even more about ordination. It has been nine years almost to the day that I first answered God’s call into ministry. I remember it so clearly as if it were only yesterday. I had just finished directing our church production of the children’s musical “Don’t Rock The Ark.” I am not sure if I had ever been a part of anything that I enjoyed more than my time spent working with everyone involved in the production.

After I had arrived home, I began to reflect upon the experience, I thought about the things in my life that gave me the greatest pleasure and satisfaction, and it was in that moment that I made the decision to follow, or perhaps “attempt” to follow where I felt God was leading me. The problem was, even if I had some remote idea of where God wanted me to go, I had absolutely NO idea how to get there.

Suddenly, I had the inspiration to get on the computer and to look online and see what I might have to do to become a pastor and to participate in this work all the time. After much searching, I found myself at the website for the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. After scouring the entire website and not really getting any of the answers I was searching for, I began to pour out my thoughts, hopes, dreams and questions to the email address intended for those who had any further questions about seminary.

When I had completed this epic email and was reviewing it for the one hundredth time, I heard a loud voice calling to me saying..… “What are you doing?”…….. It wasn’t God… it was my wife Karen. She wanted to know who I was sending an email to. What was I going to do? I wasn’t ready to share this with her… I wasn’t ready to share this with anyone… for heaven’s sake, I didn’t understand it myself, let alone try to explain it. So I did the only thing I could do, I minimized it so that she couldn’t see it.

“Who are you sending an email to?” she asked again. So, I looked at her and asked, “Would you really like to know?” She responded that she did and I slowly read the email to her. Then, I looked into her eyes and cautiously asked what she thought. She paused…hesitated for a moment… then said, “I think you should do it…I think you would be good at it…” Then she said the words that forever changed our lives, “When do WE start?

In that moment, the direction of our lives was altered forever. I had no idea what was to come. I had no idea where it would lead and I certainly didn’t have a clue what it would ultimately mean to follow God’s call on my life, but what I did know was that whatever God had planned for us we were in it together.

Next time I will share with you my first Annual Conference experience and what I thought (at the time) must have been the most stupid thing I had ever heard. What I didn’t know was that the joke was on me. (God does have a remarkable sense of humor.)

Blessings