Following the Global Leadership Summit last August, I had the opportunity to fly to Chicago to debrief with the Willow Creek Association GLS staff and other host site pastors. (8/24/10) During the first 2 legs of the flight I finished reading a book by Erwin McManus, entitled “Wide Awake.” On the last leg of the flight I decided to journal some of my key takeaways from that book. Somewhere between Kansas City and Chicago, at an elevation of 30,000 feet, I wrote down McManus’ statement, “Very few are meant for notoriety, but all of us are meant for significance.” As I penned those words a dam broke and my mind and heart were flooded with thoughts and dreams about ministry to RVers and ministry with RVers. I couldn’t write fast enough.
I started thinking about the vision that was coming together in my mind and in my journal. It was about Simple and Mobile Uncluttered Evangelical Living. I realized that the first letters of those key words spelled SAMUEL. I heard a whisper to look in First Samuel to see what was going on here. As I quickly perused the pages I came to verse 10 in chapter 3, where Samuel hears the Lord whisper his name and replied, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” Now that blew me away, but the Lord seemed to say to me, “but keep on reading, there is more!”
I ultimately arrived at 1 Samuel 7:15-17, which reads:
15 Samuel continued as Israel’s leader all the days of his life. 16 From year to year he went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places. 17 But he always went back to Ramah, where his home was, and there he also held court for Israel. And he built an altar there to the LORD.
Through scripture, God confirmed to me in dramatic fashion the plans that He has in store for Ann and me in the decade of our sixties! Like Samuel we will travel to various destinations at different times of the year, utilizing our gifts in ministry, joining the Lord where He is at work. But also, like Samuel, we will always come back to Lubbock and Live Oak, our Ramah, because that is where our home is.
God’s whispers sometimes blow you away.
Blessings,
Chuck
