For Ministry Wives
My Book!
<a href="http://www.lifeway.com/cuteshoes" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Check out my book!" src="http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u80/thepreacherswife/cuteshoesblogbutton.jpg"/></a>Intercession
M2M Blogroll
More Favorites
-
I have to warn you that what you are about to read may be about as welcome as if you had taken a trip to the beach, carefully packed a cooler full of your favorite snacks, tucked away a book you had been dying to read in your adorable tote bag, carefully placed your chair so you were getting just the right amount of sun, just sat down and dug your feet in the sand only to feel a drop of rain on your nose. And then another. And then all its brothers, sisters and friends it has ever known come to join the party. Unfortunately for you, yours is now over.
Rain clouds are funny that way. They don’t dissipate until they are spilled. Consider this a spilling. My spilling.
You may need to take cover.
******
Your notes of concern and desires to help our town recover from the storms that devastated us on April 27 have been balm to me. I want to mention a particular type of note because it is the wording I’ve struggled with most. They are the ones (this is a representative sample and I’m only quoting here) that read, “I don’t kn0w how you are handling this like you are. You have been so strong, brave, helping others while you are suffering too, blah, blah, blech, etc.” (Emphasis mine.)
I don’t add those end words to disrespect your sentiments. Again, these are appreciated expressions of care for me and mine that have ministered more than you imagine. (Do you know the word “minister” means “to provide, to add to”? Love that. You have added to me.) But the exactness of those perceptions is untrue. Because I’ve not been handling this well. Not when I’m alone with myself.
I’m up at 4:30 a.m. this morning because I awoke from a dead sleep certain I heard someone crying. After checking the kids’ bedrooms, they weren’t. It may have been me. I had been dreaming like I do every night that I am in an unstable environment. The typical nightmare is being in our house and it suddenly collapsing or just falling onto its side. Last night I was at a mountain resort where I was supposed to be teaching. It was snowing and I was crouched down trying to protect myself as people pelted me with enormous snowballs. I don’t know if this was before or after the lesson. Either way, not good. About that time the mountain began to rumble and I knew a landslide was coming. I proceeded to run and trip and fall and get up with snow all in my face and try to run some more as the earth was catching up to me.
It has caught up to me.
I’ve been trying so hard to hear God, to see Him in all this destruction. So many have loved us and made that manifest so please don’t take my melancholy as being unappreciative of the ways He has used you to bless us. I have seen neighbors push pause on their lives to help those who have lost everything. I have seen Him bring to existence a ministry center where our church can meet the needs of those in our community and our people rise up to be Jesus to the hurting. So yes, indeed I have seen Him but I feel like a witness of where He belongs to someone else instead of the God-Presence I take home. I am terrified that somehow these days will pass and I will not have gained the riches of what *I* was intended to find in Him. My mind and heart have been dark from physical and mental exhaustion and I’m frustrated to no end because I know what it feels like to get it, to get Him, to gain some new experiencial, relational knowledge of Him. I feel I’m on the outskirts of His ways, trying to understand the thunder of His power and hearing a very small whisper instead. (Job 26:14)
I’m a voracious reader and sadly do not often take time away from commentaries and study materials for good stories. I decided maybe I just needed a mental break during this time so I went to the library and opted for something light to read before I went to bed at night. Ironically, what I picked up was Mark Twain’s “Roughing It”. I adore Twain and the title spoke to me. Twain’s satire and wit and penchant for exaggeration convinces me we would have been the best of friends save for the fact I find no indication he was more than an observer of the Christian life (of all walks of life actually) rather than a practicer of it. All that said, there is a portion of this memoir in which he details his going to Nevada and later California during the days of the silver and gold rushes.
It’s hard to quote Twain because he uses a great deal of speach to develop a thought rather than wrapping it in a pithy statement. (Did I mention we could have been bff?) With great pains and many adjectives he describes the process of pocket mining as opposed to mining from an underground cave. Think of pocket mining as the stereo-typical movie visual of an old 49′er panning in a mountain creek. The miner would dig and sift until (prayerfully) he found gold flakes and through process of elimination would find where the gold was more concentrated, hence the ‘pocket’. The pocket could yield $50 or $50,000 depending on its depth and the tenacity of the miner. He tells of one who worked a particular area for a very long time and in the evening would sit on a boulder to regroup and decide where he would next search. He eventually moved on only to later learn the boulder itself was a very rich pocket and all along he had been sitting right on top of it.
In another story Twain recounts a time when he and his partner find a silver vein that will make them millionaires. The process of staking the claim as their own required they do a significant amount of work at the site within 10 days of registering it in the claims office or else it would be considered abandoned and released to be claimed by another.
As the story goes, Mark left a note for his partner that he had to go tend to an ailing friend and assumed the partner would do the necessary work. The partner never saw the note and was called away on business assuming Mark would do the work. At the end of the 10 days their tract was considered abandoned and another made a fortune from their neglect. He concludes, “And that is how it came to be that I was once a millionaire for ten days.”
There is a related scripture that captivates me:
“6In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” ! Peter 1:6-9 ESV
If necessary, you are grieved. If necessary. When mining for treasure, it is often necessary to insert a stick of dynamite in invaluable rock to get to what lies beneath. We’ve had our blast and now it’s time to sift through the rubble for that which is priceless. There are the obvious treasures of relationships with people, but God is there too and I’m still searching. Still panning. Still gazing into the swill and praying I find the glory that is certainly there. Lord, do not let it be that I was sitting on You the whole time and didn’t even know it. Let it never be said that I abandoned the work and left the find to another.
Let it never be said that I was a millionaire for ten days.
No, I’ve not handled this well. I’ve been afraid, sad, overwhelmed, ungrateful, self-pitying, and without perspective. But these are a part of my process of elimination and I feel that perhaps now I’m getting closer.
Closer to Eureka.
By Jennifer Walker
On this specific day, in this exact place…
During this particular season of life, we must rest in this truth:
God knows, God remembers, God ordains and God orchestrates the milliseconds of our moments.
I was thinking about Zachariah and Elizabeth (Luke 1) today: the YEARS they served the Lord and walked righteously before Him, the YEARS they had prayed for a child, the 400 YEARS of silence from the Lord to His chosen people who for centuries were awaiting the promised Messiah, and that very moment on that specific day in that exact place during that particular season of life when humanly speaking, hope was gone.
God had woven every detail of their lives to bring them to that very day when the 400 years of silence was broken and Zachariah (whose name means “God remembers”) was told that God had heard his prayers. They would have a son and their son would prepare the way for the Savior of the World!
God’s timing was perfect.
Who but God knows what would have been different had Zachariah and Elizabeth had a child earlier. Who but God knows what would have changed had Zachariah been chosen years earlier to serve in the temple. The outcome would have been the same, but the story would have been different.
Aside from their trust in God, Zachariah and Elizabeth had no idea that the “years of silence” were not dormant. God was working behind the scenes, building, preparing, and making the way for His answer to their immediate prayers for a son, and their lifelong prayers for a Savior.
In that period of silence, God was setting the stage for Jesus, who would save us all from our sins and give to each of us real life. Our lives are changed and blessed because of the work God was doing in the “years of silence.”
This is a beautiful truth to me today. Right where we are at this very moment, on this specific day, in this exact place, during this particular season of life, God is not dormant. He is working, building, preparing, and making the way for His answer to our immediate prayers and to our lifelong ones.
In this period of “silence” God is working behind the scenes, setting the stage for Jesus, who will make Himself known and glorified as He changes and blesses our lives and the lives of others, through the work He is doing this very moment – that might seem silent to us.
The same is true for you today. Wherever you are, here you are, at this very moment, on this specific day, in this exact place, during this particular season of your life… God knows, God remembers, God ordains and God orchestrates the milliseconds of your moments.
And God is working, building, preparing, and making the way for His answer to your immediate prayers and to your lifelong ones. He is stetting the stage for Jesus, who will Glorify Himself and bless you and those around you through the work He is doing this very moment, even if it seems like a lot of silence to you.
May the Lord bless you and strengthen you in your times of “silence” my friends. Because one of these days, the curtain will rise, the silence will be broken and you and I will have some awesome stories to tell of all of God’s works. He will be honored by us and honored through our testimonies.
Hang in and hang on… God is working behind the scenes of silence!
“But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God and made Him my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.” Psalm 73:28
Jennifer is a Full-time Christ Follower, Minister’s Wife, Mom, Daughter, Sister, Homemaker, Bible student/teacher, Speaker, Writer, Blogger, Math tutor, Coffee drinker, and Truster of the Lord who has recently relocated from Nashville to the MS Delta. You can visit with Jennifer on her blog Smelling Coffee, where she shares “Faith, Family, Food, Fun, Life, Love and Living it all through Jesus Christ” and connect with her at SmellingCoffee on Twitter.
*Are you interested in writing an article for Called Out? Be sure to check out our submission guidelines. If you have any questions or are ready to submit your article, please email us at submissions@apreacherswife.com. We’ve loved what we’ve received, so please keep them coming! Look for our next Called Out article on June 10.
May 20th – June 2nd
Be sure to visit these ladies, connect with them, and read more about their hearts, their journeys and their families!
Michele @ My Brazilian Life
Elaine @ Peace for the Journey
Sarah @ Sitting Solo
Patsy & Megan @ Sunday Women
Tricia @ Two Tiaras and a Sword
This is not a blog contest. This is just a way to put your blog in a more accessible spot to allow more women to find your link, visit your blog and connect with you. The Featured M2M Blogs are listed down the right hand column of The Preacher’s Wife. We will choose five new blogs every two weeks on Fridays. To become a featured blog, all you have to do is be listed on the M2M Blogroll and be an active blogger. Email m2mblogroll[at]apreacherswife[dot]com to request to add your blog to the blogroll.
