The sounds become familiar; the views the same.  The people you know.  You recognize the front row.  This is the third time I have been here and my fifth year.

It’s funny.  There are many expectations; both internal and external.  I was quite sure that I had everything figured out this past January, I was going back to work the same job I had previously worked.  Then the job went away.

You hear the Voice.  It calls.  You see the impossible, but you know your God.  You know that something in your life has changed.   More important, you know something in your life has broken off.  And you hear, over and over, “I have called you to the nations.”  You just put it on the shelf.  You ponder.  Then you get called out, “God has called you to a nation and it will be soon.”  More to ponder.

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with a man-of-God as I was driving him to his hotel.  He asked me, “What was I going to do when I finished.”  I knew the implication, “Are you going into ministry?”  Without thinking about it, I was emphatic.  I said, “I did not put me into internship and I am not going to put me into ministry.”

No.

Ministry will have to pursue me as I pursue God.

–Michael