I grew up in a Christian home and was in church from a very early age. While I knew God loved me and had no trouble believing that, it wasn’t until I was nine that I really experienced a deepening awareness of my own sinful nature.
On a Sunday evening in April, our interim pastor gave a message on the life of Jonah. As you may recall, Jonah was a man of God who was given specific instructions to go to the city of Ninevah to preach. But like so many in this life, Jonah felt the people in Ninevah were too wicked to be worth his time. His refusal to follow God in obedience found him swallowed up by a big fish . . . not exactly a pretty picture, is it?
Even as a child, I had sensed that the Lord wanted to do something powerful through me. I had known that my life would be spent in service for Him, but I had no idea what that would look like. Despite my love and aptitude for music, I just s couldn’t see myself serving as a music minister. I didn’t want to preach. And I definitely wasn’t interested in going into foreign missions.
So, I prepared myself to use my other gift for Him — the gift of writing. I poured more and more of myself into my passion for journalism, winning a number of awards and scholarships in both high school and college. But after moving to Ole Miss — on a journalism scholarship, nonetheless — God made it clear to me that despite my abilities, He had a different plan for me.
I remember driving home to share with my parents that God was calling me into full-time ministry, and that I would be pursuing post-graduate education at the Seminary level. I fully expected to see their frustration at having watched me wander in the wilderness for so long. What I found though were parents who had long sensed the same — and were just waiting for me to discover that answer for myself.
My advice to anyone struggling to answer a call from God is simple. Just say yes — and let Him guide your path. Like the disciples in the Bible, following Christ is not easy. It’s about service. It’s about sacrifice. It’s about submission to His lordship.
But it’s also about adventure . . . going with Christ through the hills and valleys of this life and seeking to make every day count for Him.
