-Prologue-
If you came to my home for a visit, I would welcome you at my front door with a big hug. Ushering you down a couple of steps that lead to the sunken family room, we could sit on the overstuffed sofa I’ve placed beneath the picture of an English lady tending her garden. It brightens the wall where our family portrait once hung.
I would offer you a brimming cup of coffee or tea, hoping you would feel warm and welcomed in this room. As we politely chatted for the first few minutes, I’d probably point out my latest accomplishment, replacing hum-drum, sun-bleached tan curtains with those gardenia-white, tea-rose pink and heavenly blue window treatments. It still amazes me how that simple change helped make this one of my favorite rooms in the house when it used to be the one I avoided most.
Knowing that you’ve come for reasons other than light conversation, I would share a little about my world…before my life fell apart.
I fell in love with my high school sweetheart. We both entered college as freshmen, but I ended my studies after my sophomore year. We married during the Thanksgiving break of his junior year. After my husband’s graduation with a degree in engineering, we started our family…two precious daughters and a beloved son in the middle.
After ten years as an engineer and faithfully serving in local churches where we lived, my husband shared that God had burdened his heart to seek full-time ministry. I agreed to support him in whatever he chose to do even though I felt totally inadequate to be the wife of one in full-time ministry. But I also feared God enough that I didn’t want to say, “No, God! You can’t have my husband.”
Not long after our decision was made to explore avenues of ministry, the small church we were attending was in need of an associate pastor. Knowing about our recent decision, the search committee asked my husband to fill this new position. We felt that this was God’s affirmation that He had led us to this place.
With our three children, eight, six, and two, my husband and I said good-bye to our small three-bedroom bungalow and set out on an unknown journey called ministry.
Eighteen months into this new calling, the former pastor resigned. The church extended this position to my husband. With additional seminary classes still ahead, our home was in constant motion. We juggled our family around breakfast meetings, board meetings, staff meetings and prayer meetings. From Bible studies to banquets, rehearsal dinners to weddings, and seminary homework squeezed late into the nights, the commitments were endless as the congregation of two hundred began to grow.
A vibrant singles and youth ministry developed, along with an often overlooked deaf ministry. The children’s ministry was busting at the seams. It was exciting to be a part of this church community. Within ten years, large audiences attended the annual Christmas and Easter pageants sung by a hundred voice choir accompanied by a full orchestra. In our eighteenth year, architectural plans for a third building program were underway for the two thousand parishioners who now worshiped there.
Meetings were constantly scheduled to meet the demands. Fatigue and frustration began to emerge at home. Our lives seemed to pass in the night. Yet, seeing how the ministry was impacting the lives of so many made it all seem worthwhile…until one November afternoon when my husband of thirty years was seen in the arms of someone else. When I heard, my heart ripped in two. I wanted to die. Frantic attempts were made to hold us together, but after only a few days he left, turning his back on everything he believed and the family he once loved.
Now, as our visit continued and I’d refreshed your drink, excitement would build in my voice when I’d begin to share what God has been doing and continues to do in my life. I’m learning what He means when He bids, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV).
I would want to tell you about all the special things that have happened here in this very room that avoided for a while. For in here is where I began to inhale the fragrance of beautiful worship music, clinging to the message of each song as it ministered to my heart. I’ve taken notes in here as I listened to God’s men instruct me in His Word. In this room, I’ve sought Him much like a starving woman looks for bread; as one dying of thirst clutches his throat in search for water; or as that desperate woman in the Bible inched her body along a dusty road reaching out as she cried, “If I may touch His garment, I shall be whole” (Matthew 9:2 1). I don’t even know her name...but Jesus did. He spoke to her just as tenderly as He spoke to me: “Daughter, be of good comfort, your faith has made you whole” (Matthew 9:22 KJV).
I hope that you will treat this book as though you and I were sitting together on my couch sipping a cup of tea or coffee beneath the picture of the lady tending her garden. Perhaps you’re walking through some very difficult times right now and that is why this book was offered to you. If you will stay, I would like to share how God carefully nurtured and tended to my heart. Even though I don’t know your name or that of the desperate woman, Jesus knows. No matter how difficult your situation may be right now, He is the only One who can enable you to enjoy life again. My prayer is that you will be encouraged as you read selected portions from my journal, giving evidence that He truly felt my tug at the hem of His garment and is in the process of making me whole.
God wants you to reach for Him as well. He wants to comfort and strengthen you so that you can press on. Allow Him to write on your heart as well as in your journal the “great and mighty things” He is waiting to do for you.
Copyright 2001, 2004 Donna Christensen
All rights reserved.
Published Online by: The Biblical Reader
www.biblicalreader.com