His Plan (part 3)

We moved back to MD in December of 2005, but still weren't quite sure what Max would do for work. He was still leaning towards teaching. About 2 weeks after we moved back, he got a job selling Hondas. After a couple weeks of working there, the manager said "you have more potential at selling cars than anyone I've ever seen!" So we began to think that maybe that was really his calling!

He did apply and was interviewed at AACS for a teaching position, but when he went there for a day to see how it felt, although the principal really liked him, Max realized that teaching high school was not for him. He wanted to teach people who were actually interested in the subject matter. So he figured that maybe he would go on and teach at a college.

Before long, Barry asked Max what he planned to do with his seminary degree and mentioned that they might have a need for an intern.

NEVER did we think that a job would become available at our HOME CHURCH! One of the pastors was leaving to work for another church, so they really needed the extra help. Although I didn't like the idea of him being a pastor, I was open to an internship, just to see where his strengths were. Besides that, obviously this was GOD opening a door for us! After 6 months at Browns, he said goodbye, and began at the church.

Since Max didn't think he would ever be a pastor, he took NO preaching courses at seminary. Now, with the internship, he HAD to preach! It was truly a blessing that he had spent a few months with Adam in Philly to see how HE went about preparing sermons. He spoke to the other pastors about it, and read a book about preaching, and then went to preach his first sermon. THIS IS WHEN I KNEW HIS CALLING! -- when he preached his first sermon. It was really cool to be there and suddenly have it click that God was calling him to be a pastor.

Suddenly I didn't care about any of the other stuff that used to bother me about the idea of being a "pastor's wife" and I wanted to do what GOD wanted us to do.

There were definitely some tough things about coming back to our home church - dealing with people and elders that have known you since you were a kid sometimes makes it hard to feel respected.

And it was hard for me too with a new baby, but not yet connected with anyone. When you've been gone for 3 years, you can't really just jump back in where you left off. Things had changed and in a lot of ways, it was a very lonely time for me. The longer I've been a pastor's wife, the more I've realized that its OKAY for me to have friends. For a long time I felt like I didn't want to be exclusive, and felt the need to always be reaching out to others, and in doing so was not focusing on building strong lasting friendships. It is okay to have BOTH.

Now, 4 years later (after being ordained last year - Feb, 2009), there is so much going on in the church today (and some messy stuff in our church as well) and so many questions we continue to have. What is our REAL purpose in life, as Christians? what is the purpose of a church? So many demands and expectations are put on pastors and we sometimes wonder why things can't just be simple. Are we being called to plant a church? Are we being called to take over another church? Are we being called to move to Japan where only .4 percent of the population is "Christian"? (yes, we have actually thought about this). What is life gonna be like in 20 years from now? Are we going to still have freedom of religion or will Christians again be persecuted and have to worship in private? History repeats itself, and since I am a realist, I know that things can change drastically in a country in a few years. If that is the case, I'm sure the petty issues that have invaded our churches will no longer matter, and only the gospel of Jesus will be important to get us through our days.

These are the things that I think about and wonder how life will be different in our future (although I certainly don't dwell on these things at all). I just wonder what God has in store for us and continue to pray that we will seek HIS will for our lives. My life is already so different than what I would have said it would be15 years ago, so we will see what another 15 years will bring. (I am turning 30 in a few days. . . maybe this is why I've become so reflective on my life! :)