The thought that God would honor me had never crossed my mind. Why would it? I thought it was all about honoring God. Adventures in Honorville not only took me to a deeper place of honoring God, to my surprise my eyes were opened to see how God also honors me.
The time had come for me to decide if I would teach a second year in the children’s ministry at Bible study. Sheets were passed out at the leaders meeting asking us to pray about it, check the yes or no box, and return our sheet the following week. So I prayed, “Lord, should I teach another year or are we moving on to something else?” Right away I received an answer, but it didn’t sound like something God would say. With all the divine guidance it had taken to get me to go to Teacherville and to stay when things got difficult, now He says “It’s your call”? It didn’t make sense. That can’t be God, I thought. So I prayed again, and again, but each time I received the same answer.
When I didn’t turn in my sheet the next week, the Teaching Director came and asked me if I was going to teach the following year. I told her when I prayed, I received an answer, but I didn’t think it was from God, so I was still praying about it. She asked me to tell her what the answer was that I received. After I told her, I asked her if she thought it sounded like something God would say? Immediately she said, “Yes, that’s God honoring you!” “What?!” I blurted out, “How could that be?” She said that God was leaving it up to me, that I could choose. Either yes or no would be fine.
As much as I trusted the teaching director’s knowledge of God and her faith, I had trouble with the idea that God would honor me. I had accepted that God loved me, but that He would honor me seemed too much for me to accept for some reason. Yet, it was the only answer I seemed to be getting. So, I took what the Teaching Director said as confirmation and began asking myself, “What do I want to do?” Do I want to volunteer for another year in the children’s ministry? It was a tough decision. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I loved being in the leader’s group and learning from and serving with the women of faith there. But could I endure another challenging year with the children? It was an amazing experience learning and working with God, and I couldn’t help think there were more lessons for me there. Or should I move on to different lessons somewhere else? Was God telling me there would be lessons to grow my faith if I decided to stay and if I decided to go? Lessons did seem to show up wherever I was. So, as long as He was leaving it up to me, I decided I wanted to spend another year with the ladies I’d grown so fond of.
A lesson in honoring God came one Sunday during a local radio program Jim and I frequently listened to on the way to church. Back To The Beatles with Jim Carson on KRTH 101 shared history and played old interviews from the early Beatles days. This particular Sunday an interview with Paul McCartney was played. He told about having a bachelor pad where people would drop by and hang out. One day a guy came to the front gate and said he was Jesus Christ. Paul, thinking he probably wasn’t, but if he was, he didn’t want to turn him away. So he invited him in, gave him a cup of tea, and chatted with him until it was time to meet the guys for a session. He told Jesus he could come along if he promised to sit in the corner very quiet and not say anything. He said Jesus did come to the session and did sit very quietly. After that Paul said, he never saw the guy again. Jim and I both enjoyed the story and thought it was very interesting especially considering we were on our way to church.
When we got to church, the sermon was on Creation. As many times as I’d read and heard about the creation of the world, I was given a new way of looking at it when the pastor stressed that God created everything from nothing. My mind wandered at that point to compare how I create something. I normally look to see what I have, then go to Home Depot or the craft store and get whatever else is needed. But the Bible says in the beginning “the earth was formless and empty” which means God created everything from absolutely nothing!
On the way home I was still thinking about it all. Hearing the creation story in that way for some reason made me more fully realize just how much more capable God is than anyone else. Then my mind went back to the Paul McCartney interview, and the story of him having who he thought could possibly be Jesus right there in the room with him, yet telling him to sit in the corner and not say anything. As I laughed at Paul for not consulting with the Creator of the universe when he had the chance, it suddenly occurred to me that I have Jesus inside of me and do the same thing all the time! I’m carrying around the One who created everything, the most intelligent Being on the planet, and how often have I ignored Him, I wondered.
So, what was the lesson in Honorville? Was it to wake me to the value and worth of who I have inside me–the One to whom all things are possible? Could it be with all I’d learned about trusting and following God, I’d grown worthy of God trusting me? What it all meant and where it was leading me, I wasn’t quite sure. It was new territory. What I was sure of was that I was with the One who created this territory and was eager to see what He had to show me. I’m with You, Lord!
To be continued . . . see Faithville
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