I fell in love with my wife while in college. When I proposed she said very clearly that she loved me, wanted to marry me, but did not want to be a pastor’s wife. Since I planned to become an institutional money manager and had no intention of becoming a pastor, I said, “Honey, you are safe with me…that is the only thing I will never be.”
Fast forward three years. I had become an institutional money manager at a large bank in downtown Baltimore. Cathy was several months pregnant with our first child. We had put money down on our first house. The plan was to buy the house and have Cathy stay home and care for our child. My income was adequate to support our family without her working. It was a really nice plan until God interrupted the plan.
It happened on a day like any other day. I rode the bus downtown then took the elevator up to the 16th floor where my office was. As I went to enter my office, I saw the Wall Street Journal carefully placed on the blotter of my desk as it always was. Yet when I went to turn on the light switch, something instantaneous, something powerful happened to me. It was as if I experienced a concussion blast of God’s power. Suddenly the passion to invest money in the securities markets that had driven me for six years was gone. In its place was a powerful desire to share Jesus with others.
To this day I have no explanation for what occurred. I knew, however, at that instant my life would never be the same. Since I had promised Cathy I would never become a pastor, I did not know what to do. I decided to do the only thing I could do…nothing. I literally went on with my life as if nothing happened.
Several days later, Cathy came to me independently and said she felt God was calling us into ministry and if we did not go we were making a mistake. I was stunned because I had not shared anything of my experience with Cathy. Clearly God had independently shared his will with both of us. As soon as Cathy told me how she felt, I knew it was God and I knew it was genuine.
At the time I had been a follower of Jesus for five years. We were very involved in our church in Baltimore and both walking with the Lord. But now I had a decision to make. Was I going to leave my career in Baltimore to follow God’s leading and become a pastor?
The second critical practice of spiritual growth is accepting God’s will. Often, accepting God’s will is not thought of as a practice. However, the reality is we must accept God’s will daily in order to grow spiritually. There is a big difference between accepting God’s will intellectually and practicing accepting his will daily.
Do you accept God’s will every day? If not, start right now. It may change your life in ways you can’t imagine. If that makes you anxious, just remember “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
