See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
-Isaiah 43:19, NIV
Four years ago yesterday, I started my journey into professional chaplaincy. It was the first day of my Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) experience. That seems like a lifetime ago!
My life had fallen apart.
I was considering chucking my calling as I had been unsuccessful in landing a full-time pastorate up to that point. Even my work hours at a local coffee shop were winding down. My wife had left me. And-unbeknownst to me at the time–she was already involved with the Other Man. I regularly endured contempt from her and her cohorts. The future looked really bleak to me.
Four years ago yesterday.
All of that has changed. God turned it around. Today, I am a Board Certified Chaplain (BCC) and a director of the spiritual care department for a large non-profit serving seniors. I am a father and married to a woman who treats me with love and respect. This is a future I could not have foreseen four years ago.
God is good.
And God is faithful.
I do not know where you are in your journey as you read this post today. Perhaps, you are where I was four years ago with no idea how you are going to get out of your bleak circumstances? Maybe today like me you are looking back on your former life amazed at what God has done? I do not know.
But what I do know is God is still in the business of “making a way in the wilderness.” He did so for me, and He is able to do so for you as well!
I am at the very beginning stage of this journey. My husband is moving out today. Your story is very inspiring thank you for sharing. We tend to lose hope and forget that all things are possible through our God. I am really trying to look at this as a positive journey into my future that is going to be somewhat painful a long the way but will be so worth it.