While I was at Children's Ministries Institute (CMI), I was very pleased to be in a 4-day class schedule with Dr. Robert Rohm, President of Personality Insights, Inc. Rohm is an expert when it comes to learning how to get along with people, even those kind of people who really get on your nerves :P It also turns out that he is a great motivational speaker, and he's channeled that gift into an weekly email that combines his life experience, God-given motivational speaking, and personality insights into one totally awesome thing to look forward to every Monday morning when I check my email.
While I find each one of his email helpful, the one that he sent out this week was particularly encouraging. I find it totally amazing how God can link together random things to "speak" to those who are trying to listen for Him, and this happens to be one thing in a puzzle of sorts, which I'll explain as we go. Dr. Rohm's email this week was about how your ability will increases as your stability increases. Basically, the more stable you are, the more able you are! The illustration he paired with this insight was one I can attest to from my own experience: setting fence posts.
If you wish to set a fence post that will hold up the fence for a LONG time, then you have to make sure you set it right. First, you dig the hole. The hole has to be big enough to hold the post and the concrete that will stabilize it, and deep enough to provide the proper resistance to it being pushed over. Then, you have to place the fence post in the middle of the hole, pour in the concrete and hold it long enough for the concrete to set a little, that way you don't have to worry about it falling over. Then...you wait. Once the concrete has fully cured, that is to say, that it has dried and hardened completely, you have one more thing to do: shake the post...violently.
"WHY DO YOU SHAKE THE POST!?!" you may be asking. You shake the post to make sure that its set correctly. Don't want to build the whole fence and then find out that the posts come right out, now do we? If you can shake the post and it doesn't budge, then you have a sturdy post that can hold up a fence, if not, then you have to take the post out and set it again. This setting and shaking pretty much explains my life right now. God's trained me, led me, and shown me a whole bunch...and from all that stemmed a promise, a calling, and a huge leap of faith.
The promise is something I've written about here in the past; a promise to Karis Monroe that I would give her space and time to think about our relationship. Originally, I promised that I would wait until she finished Bible college, at which point I'd check with her and either continue or end our relationship based on her decision. But the more I think about it...the more I realize that the promise really should be that I'll wait however long it takes, and so I've set myself to that.
The calling is one into ministry. God has gifted me with talents just as He has gifted you, and while your gifts may place somewhere in the American workforce, mine place me in a supporting and leading role within the ministry of Christ and His church. This coming June I'll be stepping into a new position where my entire job revolves around helping other people do their jobs better so that more ministry work can be done, and so that it can be done more effectively. In the future, I believe God would see me become some sort of pastor, possibly to the men of a church body, as I have a heart to see these men become what God truly wants them to be as husbands and fathers.
The leap of faith...well that really applies to both. It takes an insane amount of faith to keep my promise to Karis, and with almost no monthly support coming in currently for my new position (it's a "I need to raise $3000 a month to work full-time" type thing :P), it takes an insane amount of faith to step out and commit to this position, which starts in just over a month. (O.O) Both are areas that God has "set" me in. And now, with things getting tight and doubt trying to creep in, I believe that God has moved on to the "shaking" step of building this fence. (Guess that makes me a fence. Who knew! :P)
But! (If you buy two completos, it will only cost you $2! (See this for why I put that there)) If God is moving on to the shaking step, then that means He is done setting me! So if I seek Him,ask Him for strength, and DON'T MOVE then after all the shaking is done and over with I'll be a sturdy fence post! So although times may be rough, I have hope in God for what my future brings. And when it's all said and done, He'll be the one who gets all the glory, since He's the one who sets up us fence posts to begin with :P
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