Serve in the Waiting

Serve in the waiting.

I was a child when I felt called into vocational ministry. So I did everything in my own power to position myself to get there. I volunteered, served, lead, memorized and studied. I attended a Christian university. I lead worship. I used my platform as a beauty queen to share the love of Christ. I was constantly striving and serving and seeing great results. Until one day my platform disappeared. My opportunities stopped and my dreams of ministry seemed to dry up.

I stayed in that quiet place for TEN years. This was not a punishment as my flesh thought. It was simply a season, a season of growth. In that time, my titles grew from Miss to Mrs. to Mom and somewhere in the midst of those dry places I felt God whisper...

"Will you serve me in the waiting?"

After having spent much of my life on a stage, a visible platform, what He was requiring now was my heart and not my performance. I’ve always been told ministry is more about how well you serve people than anything else and now God was showing me that firsthand. Even if I was not getting paid, would I still serve His people? And would I do it well? The task of the unseen... is not unseen to Him.

This weekend I found myself sitting on a stage, surrounded by the most amazing women of God. Everything inside of me screamed that I did not deserve this seat at the table, this opportunity for ministry. But instead of believing that lie, I felt confident that the door, once tightly shut, had now swung wide open as His words began to flow out of my mouth.

So if your heart for ministry doesn’t line up with your current season... Serve in the waiting. Serve well and keep serving. Sometimes seasons change when you least expect it. 💗

Hard Earned Growth

Hard earned growth. 

Sometimes growth is obvious. Our children grow and we can see the visible change right before our eyes. Their bodies physically take up more space, they consume more food, they learn more information. The results are undeniable.

But what about growth that’s not quite so noticeable in our own lives? Patterns and habits that are slowly progressing. Thought processes we were once certain would always look the same, but are now taking a positive change. Grief previously overbearing, but now only coming in waves. 

Progress.

Living means growing. Change is inevitable. Change is the sign of new life inside of us. 

Isaiah 43:19 shows us God’s heart towards change.

“See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland.”

God is teaching me to recognize the small things, the streams, in my own life. He wants us to pause beside those streams to see the new growth pop up. He wants us to recognize who He making us to be. He wants us to continue to give Him the freedom to do more and greater things in and through our lives, as we embrace the inevitable growing pains that come with seasons of stretching and change.

I’m not sure I can put my finger on exactly what God has been stretching me for over this last season of life and it hasn’t been painless, but it has been good. Let’s lean into this season of growth together.