Memorial Stone 12: Risk and new beginnings in a land that is forever West!



 Risk such a small word, and yet very powerful.  Risk is something we often try to avoid.  We have multiple insurance policies to limit our exposure to it. What is it that makes the idea of risk so troubling to us? I think it is because risk is connected with the unknown, and the unknown makes us a bit edgy.   

We like predictability, stability…but when you embrace risk, real risk…you leave security behind. 

I have learned that there is another side of risk, sometimes it really works out! Sometimes when we leave what we think is stability is in actuality a chain that keeps one from flying!
      
If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary- Jim Rohn

In February of 2007 after much prayer and counsel I decided to walk away from a Church and a $70,000 a year job.  I felt God was calling me into a ministry of traveling, preaching, teaching and assisting Churches.  At the time Laura was not working and we had a very meager savings account.  I vividly remember having this Stevin Curtis Chapman song tumbling over and over in my mind…not long after I made the leap:

I watch you looking out across the raging water
So sure your only hope lies on the other side
You hear the enemy that's closing in around you
And I know that you don't have the strength to fight
But do you have the faith to stand and...
Believe Me now
Believe Me here
Remember all the times I've told you loud and clear
I am with you and I am for you
So believe Me now
Believe Me now

By September of 2007 I was the interim Director of Missions in Southwest Wyoming.  That position was rapidly coming to a close, and I was afraid. I had sent my resumes out bulk-mail and no one seemed to want me. The Lord taught me to rely solely on Him. 

On a cold March night with snow pelting the window in a loft over a Church fellowship hall…I told the Lord how desperately I needed to hear His voice. The Holy Spirit prompted me to read Psalms 32.  I was reminded that the Lord is my “Hiding Place” that He gives songs of deliverance! Then I read these words:

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. (Psalm 32:8). NIV

That room was charged with the presence of God!  I felt my fear vanish…in its place faith! Faith that knew that the Lord was working out a plan, making a way for me, faith I learned is a gift that God gives you often before your circumstances change.  

 I was a month away from the Director of Missions job ending. As I reflected on that experience, I told the Lord: “I was in trouble” as clear an impression as I have ever heard from Him… “Mark, you were never in trouble, I know where you are”

I should say He does! A month later the Loving and gracious HillTop Baptist Church, extended an invitation for me to be there Pastor; they later unanimously made it permanent! 

And I learned that the other side of risk stands the Lord…and if He beckons you….go! If He does, and you do, you will find yourself on the way to something more, something greater than you could have ever imagined!

Steven Curtis Chapmans song “Believe Me now” will always remind me of the care and compassion of the Lord, and what a God directed “Risk” can lead you to...for me a brand new beginning in a land that is forever West!

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