“As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” John 20:21
I am not by nature a people person. I grew up in the country as an only child who loved walking alone in the fields surrounding our home, or reading under the overhanging branches of a cedar tree that grew on the one windowless side of our house. (My mother couldn’t see me there!). Even today my favorite times are like the ones experienced as I write these words, “sitting at a small, scarred wooden table in my favorite café”, looking out the paned window at sporadic traffic soundlessly passing by. The cafe owners are generous toward moles like me – their nearby kitchen conversations are muted and they keep my coffee cup filled.
So what am I doing in a life that is normally filled with people “with teaching, organizing, and counseling?” A life far removed from meandering through fields or sequestered under pine boughs?
A night over 50 years ago is burned into my memory. It was the night I felt God saying “so send I you.” The years since that night have been saturated with challenge, joy, sorrow, adventure and fulfillment.
At times I have complained, insisting that I am not only inadequate for His task but I just plain do not like the path He has chosen. But the one who called has gone with me, refreshed, encouraged and taught me.
How tragic it would have been to insist only on walking in fields and sitting under trees.
Thank you for your patience with me, Father, and for choosing me to be your servant.
by Marilyn Ehle
Used by Permission
Further Reading
• Will God Be There? by Marilyn Ehle
• Moments of Weakness -by Charles Stanley
• Slippery Slope – by Julie Cosgrove