Long ago when I was in college a most troubling event happened in my world. The man that was my youth minister while I was in high school was under attack. This man was radical. He didn't follow the typical beat and he got results. The many hearts he reached was amazing. I am a rule follower so some of the time I didn't agree with the way he got his results but I was never surprised by the outcome. He is truly a man of God.
The troubling part came when my then boyfriend, now husband and I found out that this man was being asked to resign from our home church. This was ridiculous to us. We wanted answers. The long and short of it was that the youth minister was allowing a man with a questionable background to volunteer and the elders did not want to endanger the youth and had asked the youth minister to not use this individual. The youth minister refused and therein the problem.
My boyfriend, now husband went to the elders he argued for our beloved youth minister. I spoke to my father who was an elder we were unable to do anything. So our youth minster resigned and moved on. He didn't want to go, the youth did not want him to go it was such a depressing time of misunderstanding and pain.
Fast forward to today. This same man, our old youth minister has now moved to a bigger city and created a large inner city youth program that is flourishing and reaching thousands of people. God is using him on such a larger scale than he could have even dreamed back then. Had he stayed at our home church who knows what he would be up to. I have no doubt that God would be using him but had he not been ripped out of his comfort zone it wouldn't be the adventure he is on today!
I have personally recently been ripped from a comfort zone. I thought I was using my talents as God would have me to use them and yet my little volunteer world has been turned upside down. I have been on an emotional roller coaster the last few weeks of feeling betrayed, hurt, lost, friendless, offended, all the negative adjectives.
This is what I know. God has a plan for my life. It may not be a huge plan, but it is somewhere he wants me to be. My prayer is that he will place me on the right path and that I will follow it. God is good all the time, we just can't see the big picture like he does and in case you have forgotten we live in a fallen world.
He is preparing a place for us. He will be back.
