Can I let you in on a little secret? When I was young I thought that I would either be a lawyer, a senator, or marry Shaun Cassidy (Joe Hardy from the Hardy Boys). I was really hoping Shaun Cassidy would win out in the end, but obviously he wasn’t a contender. Instead I pursued a history degree and eventually took the Law School Admissions Test. I made an agreement with God that a certain score on the LSAT would be the sign that I was to become an attorney. Guess what! I missed it by one point. Does it sound crazy that one point on a test changed the entire direction of my life? And yet, it did.
Most likely all of us have similar stories or situations to this. Maybe it was a last minute change of plans and going to a different college or university than originally planned. That led to an entirely different friend group and eventually led to meeting your spouse. Perhaps it was taking one job over another resulting in a completely different career path. Or, maybe it was a surprise pregnancy that resulted in six kids instead of five. That’s what happened in my family, and I was the surprise. I like to remind my family of what they would have missed out on if I hadn’t been born. They like to tell me that it went downhill after my brother Bob. Their comments just taught me how to defend myself and my classic response has always been, “You're just jealous because it took Mom and Dad six times to get it right.” Clearly, bantering is my family’s love language.
Reflecting upon my choices causes me to praise God and thank the Lord for how he was leading me, even when I didn’t know he was leading. When I was asked to apply for the Assistant Director of Admissions position at Carson-Newman College. I almost passed on it. Carson-Newman had been the arch rival of the university that I attended. As a proud Railsplitter from Lincoln Memorial University, I couldn’t imagine going over to the dark side. Just to show you that God has a sense of humor, the place I called the darkside was where I accepted Jesus as my Savior. It was definitely an unexpected and shocking outcome. I still remember leaving the eight hour interview stunned that I actually liked those people. It makes me wonder if Jesus was in heaven saying to a few angels, “Just wait until you see what I’m going to do in her life.”
While I don’t know if that’s what actually happened in heaven, I would like to think it is. One thing I’ve learned is that Jesus has a great sense of humor and that he loves to surprise people. Sometimes the way he works in my life makes me shake my head, but I find myself loving him for his creativity. For example, who knew that coming to Forest Hills and being thrown into a church crisis nine weeks later would be a good thing for me. What should have been an extremely difficult situation became God’s catalyst to strengthen and empower me as a leader. Where the pandemic should have been personally isolating and draining, I thrived and discovered leadership gifts that I didn’t even know I had. Despite the church crisis and all that followed it, including a tornado, a pandemic, four days without electricity last summer, a domestic terrorist attack at Christmas, and flood waters in the spring, I have flourished here. Just to clarify, thriving and flourishing should not have been the outcome but then again Jesus does have a sense of humor and he loves to surprise me. He said no to Shaun Cassidy, becoming a lawyer or a senator, but he said yes to something more than I would have ever dreamed of. He said yes to something extraordinary and astonishing. I guess it shouldn’t really surprise me. After all, he did say, “I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect--life in its fullness until you overflow!” (John 10:10 TPT)
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