Letting God Do His Work

Podcast Tuesday! Some more stories from our weekend and our date inspired by the letter N. (And Ryan's attempt to pronounce soapapilla.) Hope we can bring some joy and encouragement to your day!

Listen here!

While on our date this weekend - and then on into Sunday as well - we had a lot of great talks. Deep, meaty talks about what we're wrestling with, what we're dreaming about, and what we're asking God for right now. I love these talks we share. I love it even more when I find out we're thinking about the same things, even though we're thinking separately. Such beautiful affirmation. 

One of our talks led me back to a story from years ago that ended up teaching me a really important lesson. I thought I'd pass it on to you.

Ryan likes to tease me that back in our high school days, I liked all his friends, but I never liked him. (Sigh...guilty as charged.) One of those friends led a weekly Bible study at our school, and I attended, both out of spiritual desire and visual interest. (Just being honest!) One week, he told us he felt God had called him to be a missionary overseas, and that's when my hands went clammy in a hurry.

I had no desire to be an overseas missionary. In fact, I feared that more than just about anything on earth. But this guy's desire to pursue missions made me think about it pretty hard. I knew, even in my silly high school crush, that he and I were unlikely to end up together, so his call probably affected me in no way. But I also felt I needed to get to a point in my heart where I was willing to say and mean that I would go overseas of God wanted me to.

It was a long battle of the soul. I wanted to want to go. But I really didn't want to go. And not in a stubborn sort of way, but in a no-true-calling sort of way. 

At long last, I said, as best I knew how, that I would go overseas if God wanted me to, and I stopped wrestling. Stopped letting it consume me. And eventually, I stopped crushing on the guy.

Close to 25 years later, neither of us works overseas as a missionary, but as I told Ryan this weekend, it took me a long time to realize that if God wants you to do something, He'll begin to put a draw and desire in your heart. Of course, it may still not come easily to you. You could still resist. (I've done that with various calls on my heart throughout the years.) 

But eventually, you'll find your heart is more profoundly drawn toward the place God wants you to go than filled with dread over what you have to leave behind.

It's certainly been true for me/us. We've followed in obedience when it's been hard, but we're so eager to see what God has, the sacrifice of what we're leaving behind doesn't seem so awful.

It was the missing piece I didn't know in high school. I didn't know if God wanted me to serve overseas, He would put that call and desire in me. It wasn't my call, so of course I didn't have. I believe He smiled on my sacrifice of willingness, but I think I made the struggle harder on myself than it needed to be.

As we look ahead to whatever our own future holds, we're doing our best to hold our hearts wide open before Him and let Him do His work in His time. He'll draw us where He wants us to go!