Lately, there have been several things that have been bothering me. The first one is the fact that I was supposed to be a pastor. That was what my calling in life was. Now I find myself in construction, and computers. The second thing that bothers me is a lack of "calling" in my life. However, yesterday, all of this changed. What led to me dropping out of college? Well, I wanted to get married, and so I did. This was back in 2009. Now in 2016, 7 years later, I have four children, and although this is great, it is still different than what I believe God had in mind for me. Yesterday, my mind was bubbling over with the "what could have beens" as far as working for God. It seems that whenever I wanted to really "go all out" for God, that my family would need attention. With four children though, that is to be expected. There is a whole world though, that does not know about Him. They need to be told that He is coming back soon. They need to know that He loves them. All of this was on my mind yesterday morning as I sat in church waiting for the sermon to begin. In my mind I prayed that God would speak to me through the message.
What He said was at some point comforting and at some point hurt very deeply. Like a surgeon with a skillful scalpel, He had to cut away at a lot of the cancerous tissue of regret that surrounded my deep boil of hopelessness. This boil had to be popped, before any relief could be found from the pain that was affecting me.
It all started as I was sitting upstairs in the audio visual room at church and talking to God. My prayer was simple... "Dear Lord, please speak to me in this message. Please show me, where I'm to go from here in my life." I eagerly waited for the Lord's reply. The service had been good up to this point. There was great Christmas songs, and a great children's story. Yet I knew the best was yet to come. So sitting down I held my 3 year old son in my lap and began to listen.
The pastor's sermon was a series on the life of king David. Maybe you have heard the story, and maybe you haven't, but for those who haven't, I want to encourage you to watch the sermon I have posted below, because this was the sermon I heard earlier.
In a nutshell, God had told me that, yes I had made a mistake, and that it would forever change the course of my life. He had great plans for me to be a great worker for Him, but that now I would have to work in a more humbler field. In other words, my life would not go in the direction that I was wanting it to go. Yet, He has not forsaken me. Before me is plain hard work. Construction and lots of it as well as working on my dad's company website. Oh, it hurts, but there is One who walks with me along the way.
Friend, maybe you feel this way right now. Maybe you feel like you have really blown your dreams for your life, and God's dreams for your life, but the good news is that God has another plan. No, it's not what He ultimately dreamed for you, but it is a plan to give you a hope and a future! You are not alone, please know that. If there is anything I hope this message will give you, I hope that is hope. Hope to replace the hopelessness that may be surrounding your life. Please watch the video in this blog entry, to see the church service and sermon that I recently experienced, and take hope once again in the powerful Name of Jesus Christ!
