The Road Not Taken

"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it." (Jeremiah 6:16)

Life is a road that God builds infront of you one brick at a time. You take a step of faith and the road extends before you. Sometimes God will mark the road with hints of where He is going to take you but ultimately, it's His road and He will choose the destination. To walk on this road means that you allow God to be Himself. He is wild and unpredictable and to trust Him means to let Him be wild and untamed in your life.

Few take the road of total trust and abandon to God and that is where my experience with YWAM had led me. Most of us are out there building our own roads to our own destinations. The reason we do so is because there is far more risk in letting God lead us down a road where we don't know the destination, where we're not in control.

During my last week at Perth, I walked into our old familiar classroom and written on one of the whiteboards was this statement: "Don't be afraid to trust the unknown to an all knowing God." I thought that statement really summed up my experiences in trusting God with coming to Perth. Before I came I didn't have a clue about what I could do for a career. I had thoughts about doing something outside of ministry but I didn't feel God's peace about these choices.

Through my experience during DTS and Outreach I believe God is leading me into a career as a Missions Pastor. It seems really to fit me and my strenghts that I discovered on Outreach, such as the ability to teach others. During my Outreach I was able to preach six times and through affirmations of other people on my team I realized that teaching is a really important part to what I need to do. Also, I realized that God has made really flexible and he uses me as an example to others. People saw me as a leader and affirmed it a number of times during DTS and Outreach. I also realized that my heart is for mobilizing the church to do missions. It's not accident I ended up on the Missions Mobilization Team of Saddleback Church where I worked for Rick Warren for five and a half years. It's not accident that God led me to YWAM and to gain the teaching of the DTS. The more I think about it, the more it seems that God has chained these experiences in my life to shape me into a missions pastor. Sure, I could do something else. But everytime I take a job outside of ministry, I feel like a fish out of water.

One of the biggest lessons that I learned from trusting God is learning how to feed from God's hand. What I mean by this is that we position ourselves in such a way that we look to God for our needs or when there is a desire in our heart for something. You see God wants to give the desire of our hearts and take care of us. In my case it would be a house and a steady income to provide for a family. But rather than seeking to achieve these things on our own God wants us to turn to Him so that He can tie these things back into a relationship of dependency with Himself. When we seek things by our own plans and schemes we cut God out of that part of our life and once that is done it's easy to let these things like having a home and security become idols. That is why I had to surrender my finances and my comforts to Him so that I could allow Him to give me things in His own way.

I realize that my calling as a Missions Pastor is partly an act of faith. It came to me one day after one of my quiet times in Ethiopia that I could really be a missions pastor. I think God did something in me during DTS and Outreach that enabled me to go on to the next step which would be to move into this calling. It's an act of faith because in some ways I feel incalpable of doing this. I don't have 100% confidence that I could do all the things that a Missions Pastor requires. But, just like when I sensed God was leading me to do a six-month mission, I sense that God is leading me into this. I feel peace about this decision and see how it really fits me, who I am, and my past experiences. Reagardless of any doubts or even insecurities or whether I could perform this role, I must acknowledge my calling. A calling I couldn't have recognized without YWAM.

I left home, six-months ago, to go seek God and to find Him. I come home doing the same. I have come to seek Him and find Him again and again and again as long as I will live and to learn to completely trust and abandon myself to Him. That is the Road Not Taken.

Much thanks goes to all of those of you who read my story of my journey. I appreciate all your support and prayers.