The Lord Will Faithfully Pursue Your Heart
I grew up in a family of Pastors. My Father was a Pastor as were the men of three generations before him. My brother is now the fifth pastor in a row to come out of our family. About seventh grade I knew I wanted to be in ministry. All through high school I did everything to get ready. I was active at church. I helped organize the coolest fundraisers you’ve ever seen for a church youth group. I was excited about God and what he could do for me and my community.
Then I went away to school and I got bored. I spent four years in college in Atlanta. I didn’t have a church home and certainly didn’t have a structure to step into where I could find the Lord. I tried a few churches, but for various reasons never really “plugged in”. Without a strong Christian community around me, I stopped pursuing the Lord in my life. I was still a Christian, I still loved Jesus and believed He was my one hope for salvation, I still believed in my call to ministry. But I wasn’t looking for more ways to be used and transformed for His work. I wasn’t allowing God’s grace to be active in my life.The last two years or so of college I struggled with some deep depression. One day I couldn’t get myself to go to a morning class for about the third week in a row. That day I made an appointment with a counselor and started uncovering the journey that had taken me to a place of darkness and despair. I tried to figure out what had happened to God’s life of light and hope.
In the end a friend, a professor of mine, talked to me for a long time about life and spirituality. We talked about depression and life callings. I don’t think she was a Christian, but she pointed me to missions. She said she thought I should get away for a year just to help people.
The same day she made that recommendation, I went home and Googled one-year missions opportunities. I found the Race. That was the beginning of 2008.The journey since then has been an exciting whirlwind. I went on the October 08 Race and now am on staff with the WR.
Even when I wasn’t pursuing Him, the Lord was relentlessly chasing after me. Jesus and I reconnected with passion over my conversations with a non-Christian Literature professor. My relationship with the Lord brings me life, hope, and excitement. I know there is so much more to come and I am thankful for my experience over the last couple of years.
So how is the Lord pursuing you? Where in your life is he calling you to more passion, more excitement, more of His embrace?
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