Praying is a dangerous business. When we start praying, we're inviting God to be a part of the story, and when that happens, plans can often go awry and our trajectories can shift.
Case in point: four years ago, I was all ready to move to Washington D.C. to start seminary at Wesley Theological Seminary. I was going to spend three years learning, being a youth minister, and exploring our nation's capital. It was tuition free. It was a city I loved. I was doing a program for people who were called to youth ministry. What could be better?
Well, at the time I had some awesome guys in my neighborhood who had started a small group in our living room. We talked a lot about Jesus and played a lot of Nintendo 64 (that's a prime small group experience!)
As I was talking about my plans, one of the guys asked if I'd been praying about it. "Well, no," I started. "But this thing is a slam dunk and I'm positive this is where I'm supposed to be. It's just too clear." Like a good friend, he was supportive. But he asked me to pray about it a little bit.
So later that night, after losing quite a few games of Super Smash Bros, I went out to the Furman golf course where I'd go to pray and think and watch the stars from the 13th green. And there under the stars on a perfectly clear night, I started praying.
"This feels like exactly where you're calling me. Buttttt, if this isn't right, I need you to hit me in the face with some kind of club." That was my prayer.
The next day the school called to let me know that the youth ministry program I'd been accepted into was being put off for a year. The school would do everything they could to get me as much scholarship money as they could, but it probably wouldn't be a full-ride. And they'd do everything they could to set me up in a youth job in a church, but there weren't any guarantees.
The day after that, I got an e-mail from my old youth minister about a job in Fort Worth, Texas that he thought I'd be great for.
Face. Meet club.
You see, I'd been praying another prayer as I was trying to figure out where I was going next. Anywhere but Texas, God. ANYWHERE! I was willing to answer a call to Boston. Or Vietnam. Or North Dakota. Heck, even Oklahoma. But NOT TEXAS.
Well, in the past four years, there's never been a single moment when I've regretted going out to the golf course that night. Fort Worth was exactly where I was supposed to be. These families and this place have captured my heart. God has taught me immeasurably much. In a few short weeks, I graduate with a Master of Divinity from a great school.
And that's where this new adventure into praying starts, I suppose. About a year I started asking God what lay ahead of me after graduation. Would I just stay where I was? Would I do something different at the church? Was I supposed to be somewhere else doing something different? And I just waited. Patiently some days. Other days less so.
And towards the end of the summer, I started to get a nibble of an answer. It was time for me to start leading a youth ministry of my own. I didn't know where or doing what. But I had a start.
So my prayer changed a bit. I started praying for the church whose name I didn't know yet. I started praying God would prepare them for me and me for them.
And eight months later, I've learned the name of that church: The Gathering UMC in St. Louis.
Yep, in a little more than a month I will be following a new call. To the Midwest! Who knew?? That's what happens when we start to pray. We end up being led to places we didn't even know existed. We find ourselves wrapped up in a story God is telling.
And I couldn't be more excited. When God called Abram, he was happy. He was content. He didn't want to go anywhere. And God called.
He was being asked to leave his home, everything and everybody he'd ever known. He was being asked to go somewhere whose name he didn't know. But he didn't go without promises. "I will bless you," promised the Lord. "And I will bless the world through you." That's a heck of a promise.
As I get ready for this new adventure, this new challenge, this new chapter, I hold onto that promise. When we let God into our stories, praying for the next chapter, it's entirely possible it won't be where we expect. It may be into the great unknown. But we go knowing God will be with us. And through us, the people around us will be blessed.
I am so excited about the whimsy and wonder that awaits in St. Louis. I can't wait to see what God has in store there.
And I couldn't be more anxious about leaving this place that God led four years ago. My friends. This city. This church. These teenagers and their families. They've left fingerprints of love on my heart that I'll never be able to wash off. They've been the answer to God's promise to bless when we follow God's call.
But it's time to follow a new call. May we all invite ourselves into God's whimsical and extravagant calling. May we ask where God is leading. And may we be willing to listen, even if the direction isn't anything like where we think it ought to be.
forever unfinished...
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