Seasons are a funny thing, they seem to go by so fast sometimes giving you little time to look back Here is a little bit of what God can do…..
I was in so much pain I don’t even know how to describe it. I had just been though a terrible ordeal, leaving me in shame and fear of the people around me. I started to attend the Young Adults ministry at Quail and I knew no one. I was so afraid that they would see all of the bad things that I had done and that I would be outcasted. That never happened. I thought the pastor would never remember me, the sad girl who would sit in the back with her arms crossed with all those walls up. But he didn’t. I would come and go for years. My pastor didn’t let me get away that easy. Little did I know the plans that God had for my life, the plans that would come from being a part of this ministry and would launch me on a mission around the world. I thought that He had forgotten about me, the little girl with her arms crossed in the back of the room.
For years I watched my piers in ministry pass me by and move on to other things. I didn’t understand why I was left behind, why I didn’t get to “move on”. So I decided to just give up and do my own thing not knowing the pain that would cause. After being gone from YA ministry for over a year I received a message from my pastor inviting me to a new YA ministry called Refresh. I had no intentions of going. I had already done this and it never worked. I truly though that I was a lost cause and that it was too late for me to of any use in the Kingdom of God. But there I was in the parking lot again, smoking a few cigarettes and wondering if this God guy was for real. Wondering if he really does redeem the lost and restore the broken. Wondering if I could be a part of that too. I crawled out of the car and took those stairs with too much pain to carry myself, little did I know that this would be the last haul of those burdens. This was it, and my life was going to change forever.
I was late. I was always late. My heels were loud on the concrete floor as I tried to slide into a seat in the back and pastor Jim stopped in the middle of his announcements and said “Morgan! Welcome back!” I was undone in that moment. I was welcome back? I never knew that all I had to do was carry my burdens up the stairs and leave them with Jesus. It was that easy. All I had to do was be willing and let him have the pain. So I did. I let it go and asked for my Daddy to show me who he was. To teach me how to love and be loved.
That night I met one of the women that would be a part of a new season of joy, hope, and healing. The minute I looked at Rita I knew she was for me. She felt my pain and she loved me in spite of it. We have been sisters ever since and she has walked though each season with me in prayer and in love. Shortly after that I would meet sweet at determined Dana who would not take no for an answer when it came to being a part of the worship ministry at Refresh. Then later would come Melissa, one of the sweetest women I know. The sister that would listen with intention and take time to teach and love. Shortly after that I was launched into a ministry. Yea, the girl who thought that it was “too late” was launched into a ministry to minister to others. I knew about the King who restores and recharged this time I didn’t just know I was a witness. Now i’ve got something to say. He will restore you! He will pick you up and turn you around and place you where you need to be. I have a story to tell about restoration around the world.
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Isaiah 61:1
