7 Years and Radical Prayers

From May 4, 2012

This weekend marks seven years since I walked down Southern’s graduation aisle and gave God permission to throw me out as a laborer into His harvest (Luke 10:2).  I’m sure I didn’t understand then just how “radical” (as Pr. Derek Morris would say) that prayer was.  And honestly, seven years later I’m still finding it out.

I’ll never forget leaving my post-graduation summer internship with Adventist Health System, having turned down a spot in their tempting financial management residency program, and setting foot in the doublewide trailer that housed the Amazing Facts College of Evangelism.  A few years before I would have NEVER pictured myself in a place like that.  College of Evangelism?  What?  Great, but not for people like me…  However, I also won’t forget the amazing things I learned and the vivid feeling of never having been more sure that I made the right choice.

Yet my experience with God’s radical responses really started over a year before when, touched during student week of prayer, I prayed, “God, you can have my summer plans.  If you want me to do something for you this summer, it’s fine.  But I won’t look for it.  You’ll have to send someone to talk to me.”  Well, He did - the very next morning.  And many bouts of prayer and two turned down internships later I was humbled and walking door-to-door in the hot California sun as a literature evangelist. Again, something I was pretty sure I’d never be doing.

And that summer led to more radical prayers.  Somehow, I just couldn’t be satisfied with the status quo after that.  I was different.  I didn’t know what God wanted me to do, but I felt He wanted me to do… something….  I’d given up my dreams to Him, and He’d shown me, for the first time in my life, work that was really fulfilling – work for Him.  Thus I found myself sitting in a church pew at Forest Lake church one morning with a lot on my mind.  I’d just been offered that nice financial management residency.  But I wasn’t at peace.  And as the postlude rang out the song, “Here I Am, Lord,” something didn’t fit.  “Whom shall I send?” the song asked.  I had no peace until my decision to let God send me.

But being “radical” hasn’t always been excitement and it definitely hasn’t always been easy.  Evangelism school ended and real life began.  Full-time Bible work was hard.  I swore after two weeks that my first Bible work job would be my last one.  Yet a few months later I found myself trekking from Texas to California to continue the call.  And after another year I found myself not just doing but teaching Bible work!  There were times my faith was strong, I saw God work, and I grew.  And there were times I let go of my faith, wondered if God was with me, and felt like a lonely, miserable failure.  There were times of joy and success, but there were possibly more times of stress, weariness, and not a few tears.  I remember driving past some of the impressive business high rises and wanting to ditch it all and go back to a “real” job.  And I got a few offers that I definitely considered.  But in the end, I knew the answer.  God had called, and without His permission, I couldn’t go back.

So, seven years and a masters degree later, I’m still not sure I have a “real” job. But I know I’m being thrown out into God’s harvest.  This time it’s been to develop and help run a new evangelism school – SALT (Soul-winning and Leadership Training) here at Southern.  It’s funny how being thrown out has brought me back to the place where it all began.   And looking back on it all, I’d sum it up this way:  God is good.  God is merciful.  God has given me privileges and second chances I don’t deserve, one of the greatest of which is being a laborer with Him.  And for the days that I forget and view it as a burden instead of a privilege, I can remember how directly He’s already led and the miracles I’ve gotten to see Him do.

And for any of you considering praying a radical prayer allowing God to throw you into His harvest I’d say, watch out.  You never know what that could mean.  Don’t do it if you don’t mean it.  But still, please do it.  You won’t regret it.  And if you’ve prayed it before but slipped back, pray again.  I’m praying for the Lord of the harvest to send laborers.  And I’ve already gone.  So that means God just might be answering my prayer by sending you.