In the in between times.

       
      Life is never static, oh I know it can seem that way, but it is fluid, something or someone is coming into your life, my life soon.  And that something or someone can change your life. Today I have a vivid recollection of an in between time in my life, when I had prayed and waited for a resolution to my dilemma of not having a church to pastor.
 
I well remember graduating from Seminary in 1987 and impetuously, hastily moving back to Colorado, thinking I have spent seven years in Texas getting educated, I am going back home to Colorado!  You would think a Seminary graduate would pray before such a move….but I really didn’t.  Laura and I and our (then) young son Brian moved in with my mom, and waited for the call of God on my life to be realized.  

 It wasn’t!  No church showed any enduring interest….and in the “in between time” I clearly remember writing the following note to God:

Lord, when will my dream be realized, when will I pastor…. where? Will I find that first illusive church before the snow flies this winter?


I waited a full year before a church gave me a chance. In the in between time, I went and talked to the Director of Missions of the Arkansas Valley Baptist Association.  Bill Irwin graciously made time for me. I remember sitting across the desk from Him…pouring out my heart and asking him why?  


His reply is etched in my mind to this very moment…. 

”One day Mark, perhaps you will sit where I am and a young man will ask you the same question, and you will tell Him how God made a way for you”!


Bill recommended me to the Washington Avenue Baptist Church in Rocky Ford, Colorado.  The congregation took a chance on me, and I have never lacked for a place to preach since!


If you are right now in an “in between place” somewhere between hope and fulfillment, prayer and reality, I would council you to trust in the one who is always with us, especially in the in between places!


Steven Curtis Chapmans song “Believe me now” has blessed me many times in the in between places, of my life:


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


I am the One who waved my hand and split the ocean
I am the One who spoke the words and raised the dead
And I've loved you long before I set the world in motion
I know all the fears you're feeling now
But do you remember who I am?
Do you..
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 it's true
I never have, I never will abandon you
And the God that I have always been
I will forever be
So believe Me now


I am the God who never wastes a single hurt that you endure
My words are true, and all My promises are sure
So believe Me now
Oh, believe Me now

Will you? In the in between times? 



Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 31, 2011 at 10:23 AM

    Pastor Mark still to this day you have touched me with your message just like you had a way to get to me when i was a young girl. I continue to thank God for putting you in my life. May God continue to bless you and Laura!!!
    Kristin

    ReplyDelete

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