Jon Acuff wrote about that phrase today(read it here), and it’s not one I use often. But there’s one case where it used to be my motto.
I worked at a summer camp for six years, and I still doubt if I’ll ever find a ministry more perfect for me. It’s the only thing that makes me not want to go on the World Race.
Every week of every summer, a handful of campers would ask me if I’d ever not be back at camp. And my answer would always be, “Someday God might ask me to go someplace else. And he’ll have to drag me away kicking and screaming, but I’ll go. That’s the only reason I’ll ever leave.”
It was only today that I realized that it sounds like I was saying that following God’s plan would be like torture if it didn’t involve camp. But then I also realized I never meant that. I simply meant:
1-For the time being, camp was so undeniably where God wanted me, it would never cross my mind to go anywhere else unless he told me otherwise. And he’d have to tell me loud and clear, about a hundred times, in different ways every time.
2-No matter how much I loved whatever new ministry God called me to, I’d still always be a little bit sad that I wasn’t with all my girls that I watched grow up.
And sure enough, it’s all happening exactly how I said it would. God has me doing something that I WANT to do more than I’ve ever wanted to do anything, but that doesn’t make me any less sad about giving up such a huge part of my life. It’ll never be easy to leave all my not-so-little-anymore girls that I love like they’re my own children.
I don’t know how it’s possible to be so devastated on one hand, so excited on the other, and hold this much peace in both of them, but that’s what I’ve got. If this weren’t all so perfectly orchestrated by God I think it would have driven me insane by now; Philippians 4:7 is thankfully proving itself to be all too true. 🙂
