Let God Lead You!

Two years after I met my friend, I joined his church. But before doing so, I had to wait for the Lord to give me permission to leave where I was attending. For months, that permission didn’t come. Week after week, I prayed for permission to leave. Week after week, I was told in no uncertain terms that it was not time.

                    

I waited without knowing why the Lord had not given me the freedom to leave. I waited impatiently, but I waited nonetheless. One day it became clear why I was asked to wait so long. God wanted me to touch a man's life through a dream He had given me to share with him. That night, the Lord then told me that I was free to leave, and I did so.

The next Sunday, I visited my friend's church for the first time. I sat in the second row on the right in a movie-theater church. I was both excited and terrified. I was excited because I saw something in this man that told me he would never be an imposter. I was terrified because I felt that I had exhausted almost all hope and energy.because I knew that in order to heal

I had suffered from migraine after migraine for 30 years and had lost two jobs and my stature because of them. When a migraine came on, it felt like an atom bomb had exploded in my brain, and each one brought more and more discouragement. I was in enough pain to consider ending my life, but I didn’t. I hung on because I was far too stubborn to die. This man, who had listened so carefully to me two years earlier, represented what I feared was my last hope.

My friend began to speak. A simple man, he spoke in clear and simple words. Silent tears that had remained blocked for far too long suddenly began to leak from behind the windows of my soul. I leaked and wiped and leaked some more. I leaked Sunday after Sunday and month after month as God began to release the pain. I never apologized, but I wanted to. My friend never mentioned it and I'm glad that he didn’t. As we walked out of the theater church, he hugged me. That’s all I needed.

Sunday after Sunday, there were no miracles, but I hung on. Sunday after Sunday, I leaked. Nothing changed. Then the migraines got far worse and I felt crushed.

Still, after church my friend hugged me and I him. Nothing changed. Yet I came and he preached and I leaked. Sunday after Sunday and tissue after tissue and hug after hug, it never changed. Then one day …

Next Time: Grief Must Make Way for the King