After all the changes in our family in 2012, I was looking forward to
an uneventful 2013. We knew we had a college graduation coming in May,
but other than that we found ourselves excited for a year of things
staying steady, staying the same! Well, that plan didn't last very long
at all.
It all started with our son in January and the phone call that would
change so many things. The phone call that proved he was not listening
to me. All he had to do was continue his course of action in college,
keep getting A's by taking classes that were over my head, stay in
school in Texas (where it's warmer than Minnesota). That's all he had to
do. His phone call proved to me that he wasn't going to listen to me. He
instead chose to go over my head and listen to God!!!
That phone call began with the words,"I think I need to change my
major." This is nothing new for a college freshman to say. However, for our calculated son, this was BIG! For quite some time Caleb was having
his own little wrestling match with God. In that first
week back after Christmas God won! Caleb is now beginning the
process of switching majors from Forensic Chemistry to some sort of
Pastoral Ministry program! I love it when my kids listen to God, and I am thrilled that all our kids are so strongly following God's leading in their lives.
A bit of stress did follow this announcement. With the change is
majors, Caleb also felt called to change schools. This took awhile for
my husband and I to process. Hadn't we just prayed with Caleb over where
to go? Texas is far away, but we felt like we were leaving him at home
last fall. How could he want to leave there? He has a huge scholarship
there after all. Enter in God and prayer and time. Caleb is a calculated
person, his process of praying through and deciding to transfer was an
amazing one to watch. We still don't know where he will be in the fall,
but God has it narrowed down to three good schools. So, once again, I
have peace, my son isn't listening to my voice, he's looking higher up
than me, and that has been our prayer for him all along!
Caleb will always be my baby...but I see him now as a strong man of God!!!
Following are some of Caleb's thoughts on this life altering call:
Listening sure is a difficult thing to
do sometimes. I’ve always tried my best to listen and follow directions
(I’m a kind of rules guy), but sometimes I’ve found it very difficult to
actually listen, especially when it was listening to God’s call. I’ve
always had the notion
that maybe God wanted me to go into the ministry in some capacity, but
the thought scared me so I put it out of my mind and found other things
to fill that place. Right around the time I was most struggling with the
call, I discovered my abilities in Chemistry. So I thought to myself,
“This must be my way out of the call!” So I pursued Chemistry, developed
a skill and passion for it, and planned out my future based on science
and Chemistry.
God has this knack of getting through
to people eventually, and I’m no exception. My first semester was great,
I got straight A’s and even got a job in the Chemistry department at my
school without filling out an application. I thought this was God
validating what I was doing, but I was thrown
for a loop after Christmas. I suddenly became restless and couldn’t
figure out why for the longest time. Then after my first week back at
school and a series of God moments, it hit me like a ton of bricks. God
wanted me in the ministry. This time the call was unmistakable and I
couldn’t shake it off any longer. So after talking with my parents I
made the leap of faith and changed classes to better suit a Biblical
Studies major. In the course of just a little over a semester God
completely changed my life and my future.
I pulled a Jonah, I ran away from where God was calling me because I was scared
of what it meant. So I ran to Chemistry, the first route out that was
appealing to me. However, God used my stubbornness and running away to
actually draw me to where He actually wanted me. God has the uncanny
ability of doing things just like that.
