A New Chapter
In 19 days, my whole life will change, yet again. In 19 days, everything that has become comfortable and normal will be wiped away, another page in the book of my life will turn and there at the top will appear the next chapter heading. This new chapter is currently being called "Canton" and I have no idea how this chapter will begin nor do I know how it will end.
I do, however, know how I came to the end of this chapter and that is something many of you are wondering about. Allow me to take you on the journey with us and pardon any rambling or rabbit trails I may take along the way.
This is a story I will tell from my perspective. I'd love to tell it from another point of view, but this is how I remember the sequence and if I put this disclaimer now I may avoid my husband, who has the memory of an elephant, from correcting me.
Actually, probably not, because he has turned correcting me into a hobby, but whatever.
Some months ago, Curt came in the door from his office and said he had just received a call from the search team up at Temple Baptist in Canton, Illinois. The gentleman on the phone was wondering if Curt would consider the pastorate there. Curt had kindly told him that he didn't feel as if God was calling Him away from our current church and I assume that Curt thanked him for considering him and that was that.
Or so I thought.
A few months later I received a message from a friend on Facebook mentioning that Temple was still looking for a pastor and had Curt considered moving? ummmmm No. I told her I would pass the information on to my loving husband and that was that.
Or so I thought.
Never once did the thought of actually moving to Canton enter my thinking process. God was moving right here. God was using Curt to draw people in this community to Him and it was only getting better. There was a sense of community and fellowship and love right here in this church that we had been longing for. For almost four years we had waited for this type of bond to develop and FINALLY it was happening. Walls were being torn down and not only did we get to watch it happen, but God was using us to aid in the process. How cool is that??!?!!
So things are going great. We love our church, we love our kids, we love our home, we love our friends, we love our homeschool coop and we are settling in to a routine and figuring out what is next. Life is good and we are praising God. Now, every once in awhile Curt needs a break from the pulpit. All pastors know that the mental and emotional stress from their "job" (Curt hates that word, he says it is a calling, so I guess at this point I should type some sort of a disclaimer) can cause burnout rather quickly so every few months we will take a weekend and go home. When we are home, Curt likes to visit different churches to see what they are doing in their worship services and to hear different preaching. I, on the other hand, want to go wherever is closest and easiest because I like comfortable and familiar. So Curt calls up his mentor and friend, Joe, and asks if he can go along with him wherever he is preaching this weekend. Joe, of course, says sure and then Curt asks, where will we be going?
I bet you can guess the answer.
I have zero desire to go visit other churches. To me, the worst feeling in the world is to walk into a church, look around and have no one say hello to you, never introduce themselves, nor ask the obvious questions they have floating around in their brains. Then, to sit down and have people make curious glances over their shoulder with me wondering the whole time, "Am I sitting in someone's seat?" THEN meet and greet?!?!? AWKWARD!! The people that come to shake your hand are the same people that just stared at you as if you were an alien 10 minutes before and now suddenly they have a desire to say hello and get to know you?
I. Don't. Think. So.
I digress.... We go our separate ways and meet up after church on Sunday to pack up and head home.
Except, this time, the casual question of "How was church" was met with a, "We need to talk."
I almost threw up.
I do not like suspense and I do not like change to occur in my life. These are things that have become quite obvious to me as we continue in ministry. Curt wanted to talk at home and the 3 hour drive home from my folks' seemed to take 20 hours.
I could go into great detail here, but it would bore you completely and then you would stop reading and you would never know the important things. In a nutshell, As soon as Curt and Joe pulled into the parking lot, Curt could feel God moving him there. So when Curt closed the door to our bedroom and told me we needed to pray about whether or not God was wanting us to move to Canton my immediate response was a godly one.
No.
No.
No.
No, I am not going to pray about this. I don't need to pray about this because God is not moving us. Has Curt not been watching what is going on here? Is he blind?? Actually, yes he is, but in this matter I was more concerned about his spiritual eyesight.
I burst into tears and Curt dropped the subject.
For 2 days.
When Curt told me we needed to go over to his office and pray I was actually dumbfounded. Didn't we already agree that God was not moving us?
Apparently not.
Begrudgingly, I went over to the office with him and prayed. Somewhere in the midst of all the tears, all the pain, all the fear, God comforted me. The Holy Spirit brought to my mind scripture that helped me to relax and remember to Whom I belonged. He reminded me that He had plans for our lives and His way is the best way. I can't remember a time that I have ever, so quickly, gone from complete distress to complete comfort in such a short period.
All on my knees with my husband beside me.
We no sooner had said, "Amen" and were in the process of getting Kleenex when Curt's phone alerted him of a notification.
It was the head of Temple's search team asking Curt if he would consider the pastorate position.
My tears started all over again.
The rest of the story, is Curt's to tell. In the midst of praying I found a comfort from God and a knowing that this was His plan for us. My job from that point forward was to be a shoulder for my husband, a sounding board and prayer support. It took Curt many more weeks before he was able to see for sure that this is what God had planned. It took sleepless nights and a lot of time in prayer before Curt could fully surrender to the idea of moving. It took good friends giving godly advice and counsel before Curt could take that first step in faith.
It took Curt realizing that before Charity Baptist was his church to pastor, the people belonged to God and He has great things in store for them. Things that do not include Curt at the pulpit. And that is painful.
I have watched my husband, for four and a half years, pray for this congregation. I have watched him weep over them. I have watched him plead. I have watched him laugh. I have watched him mature and open his heart. I have seen moments where words have been hurtful and torn him down and I have watched when a hug, kind word, or thoughtful deed has raised him up. I have watched Curt love them so fully that his preaching reflected the great emotional response they cause within him; when tears fill his eyes because he longs for them all the promises, blessings and the relationship with HIM that God has to offer His people.
And I watched as Curt told his church he was being called away.
Curt's sermon that Sunday was on the price of obedience. It was from the angle that obedience is going to cost us something. I think the price of obedience is also in rewards. Obedience brought us to Charity. Obedience brought me some of the very best friends I have. Through obedience we began homeschooling our children. Obedience gave us child number 4. Because of obedience, we had the blessing of watching others grow closer to our Creator. In fact, because of obedience, there are some that came to know our creator and THAT is what it is all about. The price of obedience is also counted in the rewards.
As this chapter in our lives draws to a close, my hope is that there is some overlapping found within the book of my life. My hope is that the characters found within these pages will continue to show up in later chapters. And if they don't, I know many will be found within the very last chapter because, after all, it is about the kingdom and our home is not here.
Here we are just travelers passing through and I hope your coat and bags will find their way to Canton, Illinois occasionally because God has some great things going on there, you know....... like.....
me :-)
I do, however, know how I came to the end of this chapter and that is something many of you are wondering about. Allow me to take you on the journey with us and pardon any rambling or rabbit trails I may take along the way.
This is a story I will tell from my perspective. I'd love to tell it from another point of view, but this is how I remember the sequence and if I put this disclaimer now I may avoid my husband, who has the memory of an elephant, from correcting me.
Actually, probably not, because he has turned correcting me into a hobby, but whatever.
Some months ago, Curt came in the door from his office and said he had just received a call from the search team up at Temple Baptist in Canton, Illinois. The gentleman on the phone was wondering if Curt would consider the pastorate there. Curt had kindly told him that he didn't feel as if God was calling Him away from our current church and I assume that Curt thanked him for considering him and that was that.
Or so I thought.
A few months later I received a message from a friend on Facebook mentioning that Temple was still looking for a pastor and had Curt considered moving? ummmmm No. I told her I would pass the information on to my loving husband and that was that.
Or so I thought.
Never once did the thought of actually moving to Canton enter my thinking process. God was moving right here. God was using Curt to draw people in this community to Him and it was only getting better. There was a sense of community and fellowship and love right here in this church that we had been longing for. For almost four years we had waited for this type of bond to develop and FINALLY it was happening. Walls were being torn down and not only did we get to watch it happen, but God was using us to aid in the process. How cool is that??!?!!
So things are going great. We love our church, we love our kids, we love our home, we love our friends, we love our homeschool coop and we are settling in to a routine and figuring out what is next. Life is good and we are praising God. Now, every once in awhile Curt needs a break from the pulpit. All pastors know that the mental and emotional stress from their "job" (Curt hates that word, he says it is a calling, so I guess at this point I should type some sort of a disclaimer) can cause burnout rather quickly so every few months we will take a weekend and go home. When we are home, Curt likes to visit different churches to see what they are doing in their worship services and to hear different preaching. I, on the other hand, want to go wherever is closest and easiest because I like comfortable and familiar. So Curt calls up his mentor and friend, Joe, and asks if he can go along with him wherever he is preaching this weekend. Joe, of course, says sure and then Curt asks, where will we be going?
I bet you can guess the answer.
I have zero desire to go visit other churches. To me, the worst feeling in the world is to walk into a church, look around and have no one say hello to you, never introduce themselves, nor ask the obvious questions they have floating around in their brains. Then, to sit down and have people make curious glances over their shoulder with me wondering the whole time, "Am I sitting in someone's seat?" THEN meet and greet?!?!? AWKWARD!! The people that come to shake your hand are the same people that just stared at you as if you were an alien 10 minutes before and now suddenly they have a desire to say hello and get to know you?
I. Don't. Think. So.
I digress.... We go our separate ways and meet up after church on Sunday to pack up and head home.
Except, this time, the casual question of "How was church" was met with a, "We need to talk."
I almost threw up.
I do not like suspense and I do not like change to occur in my life. These are things that have become quite obvious to me as we continue in ministry. Curt wanted to talk at home and the 3 hour drive home from my folks' seemed to take 20 hours.
I could go into great detail here, but it would bore you completely and then you would stop reading and you would never know the important things. In a nutshell, As soon as Curt and Joe pulled into the parking lot, Curt could feel God moving him there. So when Curt closed the door to our bedroom and told me we needed to pray about whether or not God was wanting us to move to Canton my immediate response was a godly one.
No.
No.
No.
No, I am not going to pray about this. I don't need to pray about this because God is not moving us. Has Curt not been watching what is going on here? Is he blind?? Actually, yes he is, but in this matter I was more concerned about his spiritual eyesight.
I burst into tears and Curt dropped the subject.
For 2 days.
When Curt told me we needed to go over to his office and pray I was actually dumbfounded. Didn't we already agree that God was not moving us?
Apparently not.
Begrudgingly, I went over to the office with him and prayed. Somewhere in the midst of all the tears, all the pain, all the fear, God comforted me. The Holy Spirit brought to my mind scripture that helped me to relax and remember to Whom I belonged. He reminded me that He had plans for our lives and His way is the best way. I can't remember a time that I have ever, so quickly, gone from complete distress to complete comfort in such a short period.
All on my knees with my husband beside me.
We no sooner had said, "Amen" and were in the process of getting Kleenex when Curt's phone alerted him of a notification.
It was the head of Temple's search team asking Curt if he would consider the pastorate position.
My tears started all over again.
The rest of the story, is Curt's to tell. In the midst of praying I found a comfort from God and a knowing that this was His plan for us. My job from that point forward was to be a shoulder for my husband, a sounding board and prayer support. It took Curt many more weeks before he was able to see for sure that this is what God had planned. It took sleepless nights and a lot of time in prayer before Curt could fully surrender to the idea of moving. It took good friends giving godly advice and counsel before Curt could take that first step in faith.
It took Curt realizing that before Charity Baptist was his church to pastor, the people belonged to God and He has great things in store for them. Things that do not include Curt at the pulpit. And that is painful.
I have watched my husband, for four and a half years, pray for this congregation. I have watched him weep over them. I have watched him plead. I have watched him laugh. I have watched him mature and open his heart. I have seen moments where words have been hurtful and torn him down and I have watched when a hug, kind word, or thoughtful deed has raised him up. I have watched Curt love them so fully that his preaching reflected the great emotional response they cause within him; when tears fill his eyes because he longs for them all the promises, blessings and the relationship with HIM that God has to offer His people.
And I watched as Curt told his church he was being called away.
Curt's sermon that Sunday was on the price of obedience. It was from the angle that obedience is going to cost us something. I think the price of obedience is also in rewards. Obedience brought us to Charity. Obedience brought me some of the very best friends I have. Through obedience we began homeschooling our children. Obedience gave us child number 4. Because of obedience, we had the blessing of watching others grow closer to our Creator. In fact, because of obedience, there are some that came to know our creator and THAT is what it is all about. The price of obedience is also counted in the rewards.
As this chapter in our lives draws to a close, my hope is that there is some overlapping found within the book of my life. My hope is that the characters found within these pages will continue to show up in later chapters. And if they don't, I know many will be found within the very last chapter because, after all, it is about the kingdom and our home is not here.
Here we are just travelers passing through and I hope your coat and bags will find their way to Canton, Illinois occasionally because God has some great things going on there, you know....... like.....
me :-)
:-)
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