"Honestly, I wasn't even planning to take this course, but then...."

One of the things I love about teaching Scripture is the chance to catch a glimpse of God at work in human lives.  When the people of God and the Word of God come together, I always know that the Spirit of God will be busily at work, but I can rarely anticipate how.  So for me, teaching Scripture is an adventure that never ceases to bring wonderful surprises.

A woman I will call Rachel surprised me this month as we studied the book of Acts together.  She had not been planning to take my course on "The Mission of the Spirit in Acts" during the June term at Palmer Theological Seminary.  But then an opening appeared in her schedule and... and... and... she decided to jump in.

What started as a late decision to capitalize on an unexpected opportunity to pick up a couple more credits quickly turned into something much greater.  Halfway through the second day of class, she asked, "Can we talk?"  

Rachel is a mid-career woman with a track record of success in the corporate world.  For years, she felt--and resisted--a tug toward giving her energies fully to advancing the mission of God through working for the church.  Then, when her boss asked Rachel to move halfway across the country in order to keep moving up the corporate ladder, what she actually heard was the voice of God, calling her to make the big change she had been avoiding.  At tremendous financial sacrifice, she jumped out of the world she knew and into both greater involvement in her church and seminary study.

As we talked during the lunch break that day, Rachel told me about a dream God has given her for a specialized kind of ministry.  It would take the skills she spent years honing in the business world and combine them with her passion for pastoral and restorative care for wounded people in ministry.  

Then Rachel shared what had been happening to her in class.  We had been looking carefully at Luke's account of how the Spirit of God moved the first community of followers of Jesus into mission "beyond their comfort zone."  The more she read, the more excited Rachel became.  Despite hundreds of questions about how it could possibly happen, in her heart she knew the same Spirit who moved the early church beyond Jerusalem was urging her to plunge into the deep end of the pool and move from dream to reality.  Quite unexpectedly, there was even a fellow student in our class who stood ready to help Rachel make the next move.  Shortly after we talked, they had set a time to work on the next step as soon as class was over!

Whether in some faraway place or right here in the U.S., it is an awesome thing to have a front row seat when God is at work.  It is even more exciting to have the amazing privilege of playing a small role in that work!  I am thankful for all those whose prayers and financial support make it possible for me to play that small role!

Blessings,

Stan