One day, while my son Zac and I were out in the country, climbing around in some cliffs, I heard a voice from above me yell, "Hey Dad! Catch me!" I turned around to see Zac joyfully jumping off a rock straight at me. He had jumped and then yelled "Hey Dad!" I became an instant circus act, catching him. We both fell to the ground. For a moment after I caught him I could hardly talk.
When I found my voice again I gasped in exasperation: "Zac! Can you give me one good reason why you did that???"
He responded with remarkable calmness: "Sure...because you're my Dad." His whole assurance was based in the fact that his father was trustworthy. He could live life to the hilt because I could be trusted. Isn't this even more true for a Christian?
God is trustworthy. I just proclaimed that to Him this morning for the over 5000th time in a row. We can't always see how He is doing what He is doing, but we learn to trust Him and that pleases our Abba Father (daddy). I'm trying to remember how many times I have taken that leap and relied on my Heavenly Father to catch me, knowing He will be there. It is with that kind of faith I must live my life. Must!!! Sometimes this relying on God goes against all I can see or understand. That's when I pray for understanding and there He is again. Daddy. My loving Father. When I surrendered my life to the ministry years ago I never fully anticipated all God would require of me and I most assuredly never thought I would have to have so much blind faith!! But it came with the territory and it is a constant in my life today. I currently live in Sheffield Alabama and minister at a wonderful church called York Terrace Baptist Church. The people are great and the pastor is a good man, full of faith and compassion. My road to York Terrace has been quite the Walter Mitty path. It has been The Secret Life of Walter Mitty turned the The Secret Life of David Warren. It seems my life has been one of trying to get the elusive cover shot the Lord took to complete my life story. I have gone from coast to coast in search of that cover shot and God has been there all along the way, guiding me from place to place. Oh, I have looked back at some of the places we have served and said, "Boy that was a mistake." But was it? I was actually at a church where a man threatened my life for leading praise music. I really cannot get a grasp on how that was a good place to be at, but God used me there and taught me some valuable lessons. He taught me to rely on Him and Him alone, and even though I fail at that miserably from time to time, I still want to do that. Depend on Him completely. But I will have to admit It kind of shakes your world when you find yourself at a church position at a declining church right after being in a position of growth at one of the fastest growing churches in the area. It only shakes you for a moment though when you go back to the one thing that keeps you going. Relying on God. This is the same God who put a ministry model for reaching students in my mind and heart and showed me how to do it. The model that grew to the point of a student ministry having a conference that had over 85 churches and 1500 students attending that conference at one point. I don't remember any humans telling me to do this, so I just relied on the one who put the vision in my mind.....GOD! So now I am 61 years of age and what have I learned? I need to rely on God even more than before. I was watching Fox and Friends this morning and they had a guy on there talking about building your retirement and I thought, "I don't have any retirement." I lost my retirement on my home during the financial meltdown of 2008 when we committed to go where I felt God was leading and had to leave our home and finally sell it at a tremendous loss. What will I do? Rely on God.
Before I got in the ministry I had a few different jobs. One of those jobs was a foreman of a construction crew. When we started the job every morning there was one guy I knew would be there on time, every time. He was reliable. After a while I began to abuse that reliable person by not appreciating how reliable they were. One day God convicted me of that and after work I stopped the guy and told him how much I appreciated him being reliable. His face turned red and he thanked me and left with a little more pep in this step. A reliable person is an awesome thing, but a reliable Lord is everything. So....if you look back through The Secret Life of David Warren you will see a guy who stepped out in faith and trusted a reliable God and how that God was found trustworthy. In my mind I have always envisioned God using me to do His work in an incredible way. That vision is still there and even though at times it may seem "out there", it is still a vision. By the way, in all of my travels I still look for that elusive final shot. Hopefully time will find me looking and finding it like Walter Mitty did. Thank you Lord for being reliable all the time.....
1 John 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
I hope I will continue to trust God totally and continue to pursue that elusive final shot so that all men may know Him.
The Pilgrimage continues....
David Warren
No comments:
Post a Comment