Thankfully, I realized about thirty years ago that adjustment was a part of life and you have to accept it. I have for the most part learned to live with this truth. Change is simply inevitable. If we live long enough we will experience a wide variety of transitions and decisions involved with our choices. I am one who is somewhat fond of the comfort zone and that had been my focus throughout childhood and youth and young adult years. It soon became evident to me in mid-adulthood that I adored and worshipped the stability of the comfort zone. However, the god of the status quo is a fickle deity and It took me a while to realize that.
As I reflect on my eleven years at Poplar Springs I realize that I have embraced change and the challenges it brings. There is so much I want to say and do before this next major change in my life comes about: retirement. Let me say from the “get-go “ I wanted to be here until I was at least seventy or eighty. Folks ask me, “Andy, what are you gonna do when you retire?” My honest response is, “I don’t know, but the first thing I am going to do is mourn the fact that I couldn’t stay here until you had to run me off!” I had this picture in mind:
- The personnel committee coming to me in 2037 saying, “Andy don’t you think it’s time to retire?”
- I would respond with a heartfelt…No!
- Then you would have to re-key my office because I would show up every Monday if they were left in my possession.
Well, today I am dealing with a major case of writer’s block. I don’t know what to write about so I am just rambling. But I will conclude with some insight from the scriptures:
- Moses was content herding sheep when he encountered the burning bush, a manifestation of the living God. He spoke to Moses and said these most uncomfortable words, “Moses I have a job for you,” and so began the great adventure for Moses. He was to go to a land God would show him. That was all God said, “just go and I will give you details as you begin with one step of faith.”
You can read about Moses’s venture into the great unknown in Exodus 3 and something came to mind that I found rather intriguing.
- Moses’s encounter with God was the first thing that came to mind when God spoke to me on May 21st, 1979. God didn’t use a burning bush to call me, instead, God used a series of crisis events to get my attention.
- I found myself in my pastor’s office depressed and struggling and having serious academic problems at Clemson. As I spoke with my very approachable pastor, I confessed to him that I felt God could be calling me, a confused business major, into vocational service. I confessed to him that I thought that could not be a possibility. I did not want to talk in front of people nor did I think I could endure the rigors of seminary requirements.
- My responses were very similar to Moses’s.
- Exodus 4:10-13: Moses said to the Lord, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue. O Lord, send someone else to do it.”
I took the step of faith in spite of my doubts and shortcomings and God was faithful.
I am now finding myself looking at Moses again in a different situation. Retirement awaits and I want God to send someone else to that place.
Poplar Springs take this as a compliment. I don’t want to leave but I know by faith that God has a new adventure ahead. I will trust Him.
Andy o