Have the courage to follow the Call

Minutes after watching a YouTube friend give a talk on real estate investing and taking the big step of buying one's first rental property, I saw the above title on a Christian podcast. Humm. Taking the first step in any endeavor is or can be scary. I can't remember the first step that I took when I was a baby but I can remember how long it took me to take my first missionary step. It took a while. Did I ever tell you that story? 

I remember a few years ago telling Janet, a friend of mine, about my struggle. She was fascinated because I told her that I DIDN'T want to go to the mission field. I was sort of like Jonah, but without the fish puke ending. She had never heard of a reluctant missionary. The testimonies she had witnessed all went something like this, "I knew from childhood that God was calling me to Bongo Bongo...." Very nice and neat. 

I was not that courageous in following the call. 'Calls" are nebulous at times. They can be based on emotion, peer pressure or organ music. Which is related to the emotional button we all have. My call involved all of the above. 

The missionary preached, but it was his "invitation" that got me. Then he prayed and the organ began to play, "Is Your All on the Altar." As I, in a surreal stupor, began to slowly walk that 50 foot aisle, I could feel 300 pairs of eyes wanting to see who was going forward. And there I was, Kneeling at the front of the church with several teens. I was twenty eight years old, five years married with a two year old baby girl and I was flushing my life away. Or so I thought. 

Courage? To follow the Call? Ha! It took me 17 years to get to Brazil. And it wasn't because I was raising support all of that time. I was dragging my feet. I couldn't imagine that God would want to use me on a foreign field. And I didn't want him to. 

God didn't give up on me! He is gracious and patient. He taught me and guided me through four years of Bible college and eighteen months of deputation (read support raising). He then untied my tongue to be able to do the language learning thing. Pretty amazing when you stop to think about it. Courage? From whence comes courage? It sometimes comes in an instant or in the heat of the moment. Sometimes it takes years to develop. The key is to not count yourself out of the plan and to keep at it! You can follow the Call with God's help.