This morning as Dawn and I enjoyed our Saturday breakfast routine at a local restaurant, a man came over and started an interesting conversation. He is Terry Fields. He didn’t think I’d remember him, but I did. We have had a few brief conversations around our hometown through the years. He has been gone from Tennessee for a while now, helping with a church plant out in Utah. Interestingly enough, I know another of the guys who is serving at this church plant because he was a staff member at Englewood Baptist Church several years ago. Terry Fields knew Dawn and I from our past IMB service and I suppose he just felt a connection now that he too has stepped off the beaten path into ministry.
That short discussion (this morning) made me revisit some events in my own life, how I went from someone chasing the American dream to uprooting my family and moving to Romania to be a church planter. Isn’t it interesting how some people are moving along, chasing the legal tender and suddenly (or not so suddenly) are diverted to a path less trodden? It is sort of like, well, God reaches down and touches your shoulder and says… TAG, YOU’RE IT!” Your spirit is troubled and you know that something is just not the same. You begin to feel discontented with the way things have been and you just want to do something – in Christ – that makes an eternal difference in this world.
Please understand, I am not suggesting that these highway jumpers are better or even more qualified to do such a thing. No, often they are just everyday people who are invaded with this unique burden to step aside, off the highway, from the broad path to a servant’s life. I can only speak for myself in that I often feel completely unqualified to do some of the things that God tasks me to do. Yet, I know I must try with the hope that it will make a difference for His kingdom’s sake. This line of thought caused me to recall others I have met in my life that have also stepped aside, off the beaten path.
This list is not exhaustive, but here are a few of these names: Wayne Perkins, Jared Okoth, Richard Bragg, Clem Hoelscher, Chris Turner, Rocky Black, Ray Milburn, and Mike Pineda. These are just a few who I have been blessed to know… they were heading one way in life when God did that redirection thing and caused them to commit to ministry either near to home or far away. Many, not all, are still serving in some sort of vocational ministry. If I am your friend and I failed to mention you, please forgive me if you too belong on that list. I have been blessed to know many of you 🙂
So, this article may be rambling on a bit, but that “random” morning meeting just caused me to reflect on WHY our Heavenly Father impresses some to step off the beaten path of life while others trod on in the mainstream of humanity. Maybe some of these verses hold a clue for us?
Ephesians 1:4-5, Romans 8:28-30, Galatians 1:15, John 15:16, or Jeremiah 1:4-5
I don’t know… some of those verses may not help us to understand all of the mysteries of God, but they could shed a little light on the topic in question 😉 By the way, the image used in the header for this article was taken in Brno, Czech Republic on December 23rd, 2011 while Dawn and I served there. We were delivering some food boxes to various people who could use a little extra Christian compassion that year. It was a good day to be off the beaten path.
