From a Poets Heart~ Psalm Chapter 27

Just recently my family has been going through some major changes. Changes that I never wanted to happen.  Changes that I know people have gone through before and I never could understand how they could with such joy, but now I know.  God has called us to leave our Church.  Saying that still tugs at my heart.  Jacob and I have been Youth Pastors there for 7 years.  My children, Daniel and Bella have been attending there since they were born.  We grew as a family there.  Jacob and I started attending there after we first got married. It was our first church as a married couple.  The first teens that we mentored walked through those doors.  So you can see how heart wrenching this decision was for us. 

Now let me clarify, it wasn’t anything people did, it wasn’t anything the pastor did, it was a God thing. Believe you me, we would have never volunteered to go.  God said go, and we had a choice to make. We’ve already committed to God as a couple, as an individual, that we would go where God sends us.  And when He told us to go, we could either stay and continue our work there and be miserable, or we could obey, walk in His will and be blessed. We chose to obey.  I can tell you that it was the hardest thing we have ever had to do.  As we told our youth, it was such a complex emotion that we felt. Never had I felt so torn before.  We were sad to leave everyone, but at the same time felt an unexplainable peace and joy. We felt all of that at the same time.  Now I understand. I understand how my old youth pastors could move to another place. Inside I was screaming, you can’t leave us, you can stay. But now I know. They had to go where God called. 

I have had several people come up to me and ask, where are you going? Are you okay? And at first when we going through that  I wanted to scream, no I’m not okay! But now  after several weeks, I can say I’m ok. Yes, it’s still hard, yes I drive by the church and my heart falls into my stomach, but God reminds me what He is doing, that He has a plan for us that is so much more than we can even comprehend and I’m filled with such excitement and joy that I can’t contain it!

We are going to a new church and we are finding that even though it’s hard to be the “new kid” as my sister calls it, we are seeing doors not only open but swing wide open! It’s like the host of a game show say, pick this one, pick this one, this is the one you want! We are so excited to see what God is going to do, how He is going to move.  God has a plan, and I’m excited to see what it entails.  We are going to be working with the Youth at this church, and I’m so excited. We have such a burden and heart for teenagers.  That is where God has called us to minister, and the way things are falling into place is such a God thing. God’s way is best, His will is perfect, and when you walk in His will, you will be the happiest. 

I love this chapter.  It starts off with a verse that all of us has heard and probably even memorized.  “THE LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid? ”  Doesn’t that just do something deep inside of you? It does me. It’s a promise.  God is our light and our salvation. Whom shall I fear? You’re answer there should be “no one!” There isn’t anything or anyone that we should fear. If we are a child of God, then He is our light, our salvation, our strength. 

Jacob and I could have went through our changes in fear.  We could have easily said, I give up, this is to hard, the future is to scary, I can’t see what’s ahead, so I give up.  It would have been easy to do so. But I had to remember that God is my light, He is my strength.  I had to remember to trust him, to remind myself that years ago, I put my life, my ministry in His hands and I had to remind myself to walk in that. 

I want to encourage you today. I want you to examine your lives, your heart.  And ask yourself, “Am I trusting in Him?”  Are you going through something that seems hopeless, and impossible and you don’t know how you going to get through it?  Know that Jesus made the impossible possible.  Through His death and resurrection, He recieved the victory, and if we are in Him, we have that same victory.  Remember that He is our strength, our light and our salvation. We have no one or anything to fear!

Hugs,

Erin