HIS Way…Not Mine (Part 1)

Last Updated on March 23, 2018

I am finding that God is always at work, caring for each detail of my life.  Putting into place things I could not have fathomed.  I am learning that God knows all and is putting things in place according to His plan, even years in advance.

We were very comfortable in our all African American Baptist church.  Good preaching, great singing and plenty of AMENS during the sermon.  My husband, Ray, was on staff, full time as youth pastor and minister of music, I played the piano.  We were married at this same church two years prior. We loved the people, serving there and our comfortable life.

In short time, Ray began feeling uncomfortable with being comfortable.  He felt the Lord calling us to seminary in Dallas, TX.  I didn’t have the same feeling.  I was pregnant with our third child in three years and we had just bought our new little comfortable home about a year prior.

In about four months, we had moved and were settling into seminary life.

We found another great church very comfortable setting for us…but at the request of a friend we visited his church and my husband met with his pastor for lunch later that week.  By the end of that lunch, we were praying about a ministry opportunity at this other church and knew God was asking us to make this ministry move.

This would be a very uncomfortable situation because we would be the only African American members of an all white church.  On our first visit, we were sitting behind this cute young couple.  After the first few songs, she turned and looked at us and then said to her husband, “they sing so loud!”  (She didn’t know I was just warming up.)

Ray soon became the associate pastor and minister of music at this church.  The members soon became our family (sisters and brothers from another mother – same Heavenly Father).  We soon began to understand that though the world may say that “white men can’t jump”, they could sing great gospel music and sway at the same time.

God’s call came again and we left that church with one couple to plant a church 500 miles away.  Sixteen years has passed since our first visit at the church that took us way out of our comfort zones.  Now our daughter has moved to begin her master’s studies in Dallas.

I stand amazed watching God put His plan into action, providing for our daughter a family to live with in Dallas.  She is living with a quiet member of the alto section of that all white gospel choir that learned to clap, sway and sing.

Twenty years ago God began working out the details of His plan for my daughter’s life now. Though this plan felt uncomfortable to me, at the time, God is revealing to me His word, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Can you look back in your past and see the foundations God was laying? Share with us in the comments!