God calls us to tell our story so that others may come to know Jesus Christ. “Hearts Strangely Warmed” was created to share these stories about transformational encounters with the Living God.
A little series of yeses.
I, like many people, was very reluctant to answer God’s call to professional ministry. In June 2007 I had what I call my ‘zapping moment’ or ‘come-to-Jesus moment’ where Jesus asked me if I was going to follow Him. And not some kind of half-hearted thing that I had been doing before, but a true commitment that would transform my life in ways that I couldn’t imagine.
So I said ‘yes’ to Jesus, albeit reluctantly.
And after June 2007, in July and August I felt the nudge to learn more about Scripture. So I wandered into my church office and found Eric Shaffer, who led me to the library and gave me a commentary. “Here you go, Karen, read this.” I wondered what I was in for. Then I said ‘yes’ to Disciple Bible Study.
Six months after getting zapped I felt the not-so-gentle nudge to go back to school. Let’s be clear – I had less than zero percent interest in going back to school. I was an engineer, I’m fine, I thought. So I tried to escape. I looked at all kinds of other different things, but after a couple months I was reminded that I had said ‘yes’ to Jesus, and I wasn’t willing to go back on my word. And then my senior pastor, Rev. Dr. G. Edwin Zeiders, said, “Karen, you are on my calendar.” I couldn’t escape meeting with him.
He asked me to consider that not only was I being called back to school for spiritual formation – I didn’t know what that was at the time – but also to deacons orders. I am pretty sure, as I remember it, that I laughed out loud at him! But he convinced me to start the exploration process, and he assured me that at any time if I was not interested or felt that this is not for me, that I could back out.
So I said ‘yes’ again.
What it came down to was, that even though I had a super-long list of objections, the commitment I made to Jesus in 2007 overruled them all. I have come to understand that in answering my call to deacons orders I was saying ‘yes’ – yes to freedom in Christ, yes to my authentic God-created self, that was buried under the scars from, and expectations of, both myself and the world.
If I wanted to experience the freedom that we all have in Christ, I had to live into the call to be a deacon. So I said ‘yes’, over, and over, and over again. I wouldn’t change my choices for anything. I am overwhelmingly grateful for every step and misstep I have had along the way.
I leave you with this, and hopefully you can answer yes to this as well – there’s a song from Bethel Music called “No Longer Slaves,” and the chorus goes like this: I’m no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. That’s what we say ‘yes’ to. It’s not about the fear, it’s about saying ‘yes’ to Christ. It’s not ‘yes’ to the bishop, or your district superintendent, not even to your pastor, who’s dragging you kicking and screaming. You’re saying ‘yes’ to Jesus and the amazing freedom and love that he offers. Amen.
