The Journey Continues
I’ve reserved Thursdays for personal reflections, and today I’d like to share a short essay, I wrote recently for Living Life Magazine. I started writing for Living Life while in Korea. It’s a great devotional magazine with writers from around the world. Many, I’m blessed to say were students of mine.
Anyway, this past month I was assigned Genesis, chapter twelve, and God’s call to Abraham to follow Him on what turned out to be a lifelong journey of faith. After my thoughts on the passage, I shared these personal thoughts on my journey. I hope you are encouraged by what you read.
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I’m about to turn sixty-five. I responded to God’s calling to serve as a pastor thirty-nine years ago. Leaving the security of a good job and a great place to live - who wouldn’t love living in Orlando, Florida - I followed God to Fort Worth, Texas, and enrolled in seminary. Since that time, I have lived in eleven different homes. In July, my wife and I will put our home in Pensacola, Florida up for sale, and move once again, this time to an apartment in North Carolina. Why another move at this point in my life? Simple - God continues to lead me on this lifelong journey of faith to which He has called me. And I’m about to do, once again, what I was created to do - pastor and lead a church of the Living God.
Most of my family and friends have been settled in one place for many years. Some are bold enough to ask what many wonder - when are you going to settle down? I usually respond by telling them I’m enjoying the journey too much for that! And I am!
The New Testament refers in many places to God’s people as sojourners and pilgrims on this earth. And as sojourners, we follow our Lord wherever He leads, looking ultimately beyond our homes in this world to that city whose builder and maker is God. This is true for all who answer the call of Jesus to “follow me.” Whether we live in one place or many, our final destination awaits, and it will be our final resting place.
In Christ,
Dan
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