Happy Memorial Day weekend!! What an awesome weekend it was! I hope you all had one like we did! Busy with good friends, good food and good fun!!! And we had a great worship service at Meadowview on Sunday! We definitely missed our Senior Minister and his wife because they are on a beach vacation, but it gave Keith his first opportunity as the Associate Minister to preach! He had a very powerful message and as always I enjoyed hearing what God wanted said through him!
So this has been on my mind a lot lately so I figured my blog today would be on this subject. I see and hear a lot of people on social media, on tv, in person, etc. talking about how God wants us to be happy. And don't get me wrong. I agree. My problem is that sometimes I think we forget that God does want us to be happy, but He wants us to be happy doing HIS will. We live in a world consumed with "I want, I need, ME ME ME ME ME ME." Have you ever noticed that? We are a world that feels we should always be happy, always be content, and always comfortable. And if we aren't then obviously its not ok and it needs to be fixed. We want things our way and if they aren't then we throw a fit about it. I have been a Christian since I was 13 years old, and before that I grew up going to church every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening. I went to a Bible College, married a preacher, taught Sunday classes, worked with youth groups, spoke at ladies events and retreats, but never truly had an intimate relationship with God until this past year. I believe a lot of that has to do with me wanting to be in control of things. I do have a tendency to think if I just do it myself then it will be done right! There have been times in the past where I have verbally said "I am giving this to you God" and then in the back of my mind I am still figuring out how I am going to control it!
10 months ago God put Keith and I on the most fantastic spiritual journey of our lives! If you had asked me during those 10 months if it was fantastic I would not have said yes, but now that we are where we are I can say that with a strong YES! We chose to leave ministry work and pursue our own desires in August of 2012. Keith wanted to be in law enforcement and I wanted to live in the same town as my family. We did EVERYTHING we could to make it happen even though it was extremely hard to make it all work. We were going to be happy because that was what we wanted! To put it in simple terms we told God we didn't want to do what we knew He wanted us to be doing because our wants were more important than His. So there! You know how when your children think they know better than you and decide to disobey you and then the result of their decision is REALLY BAD? Well that's what happened to Keith and I. On the surface most people couldn't tell things were really bad for us, but Keith and I almost immediately knew we had gone against God's will and gone after our own. For 5 months after Keith and I got to MS we prayed, we studied, we meditated, we prayed some more, we even went to a Christian counselor to try and get his insight on what we should do. We had to take all of our wants and our desires (years of them) and find a way to put them aside to find what it was that God wanted. Keith and I always said that we wanted to do His will, but we had not stayed true to that. We wanted what we wanted and realized that our desires were not Gods. Now most would say "God wants us to be happy so do what makes you happy." You are absolutely right God does want us to be happy. He wants us to be happy DOING HIS WILL. I think as Christians we get confused. We are a selfish species. We were put here to serve God. End of story. Period. I could stop there and that should be enough. We were all given a purpose on earth to serve God. Some as nurses, policemen, teachers, trash men, moms, ministers, missionaries, etc. The catch is God gave us free will and we have a choice in whether or not we want to serve Him in those capacities. Could Keith and I have stayed in MS doing what we were doing? Sure, but we never would have been truly happy because Keith and I both know we were called into ministry. And now that we have figured that out we will spend the rest of our lives in it. And we have learned that the things we thought we wanted or the things we thought we needed aren't really at all. Those that know me know I have a strong sense of family. My family (parents, brothers and their families) is the most important thing in the world to me and being close to them, but this last year I realized for the first time that there is one thing more important to me than my family. My relationship with my heavenly Father. That was hard for me to swallow. I finally had what I had always wanted. I was in the same town as my family, I was literally steps from my mom. I had what I thought I always wanted, but I wasn't happy. Now I am 11 hours from my family, 16 hours from my best friend and in a town of completely new people. There are no words to describe how God has blessed this decision though. When Keith and I finally let go of control and asked God to take over and truly let Him take over He blessed us more than we could have ever imagined. I guess my point is that God does want us to be happy, but maybe what we want is not what God wants. And sometimes we have to put aside our desires and our controlling ways and listen to where He is guiding us because I promise you when you let go and let God you will be happier than you could have ever imagined!
God Bless!