In this transition when I don't have any idea how things will turn out, and so far much has not come around the way I had hoped it would, I am blessed to continue to be reminded in lots of ways that God is faithful and that the Lord has good plans for me.
My son sent me an e-mail with Romans 8:28 in it -- "God uses everything for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes."
That passage was first brought to my attention in January of 1986 when I was leaving active duty in the Air Force. Krista, Tommy and I were coming out of Alaska on the State Ferry. A colonel I had worked for at Patrick AFB near Kennedy Space Center had retired from the Air Force and gone to work for NASA at KSC. In early January he had been kind enough to say that he would help me find a civilian job.
Leaving the security of military life within less than two years of having left the security of marriage partly because of the difficulties of being a single parent on active duty overseas, I was being challenged to learn to trust God in new ways.
I actually didn't trust the Lord very much at all at that time. I was used to taking control and making things happen, or at least that was the way I thought about it.
Instead of seeking God's will before I made a decision, I would run over one way and query the Lord, "Is this it?"
And then I'd run over another direction and ask, "What about this?"
Or I would just barrel through circunstances to make something happen that I wanted to happen without asking for God's guidance and just insisting on my own way.
When we got off the Alaska State Ferry at Sitka we were all set to spemd a few days there sightseeing. We lodged at a Bed and Breakfast owned by a Tlingit woman married to a Greek-American man who had fought in the Aleutians in World War II, and who had fallen in love with Alaska while there. After the war, he had gone back to the east coast of the "Lower 48," as Alaskans call the rest of the US except Hawaii. Then after bidding his family there farewll, he had made his way to Sitka, found his wife and raIsed a big family.
The first morning we were to wake up in Sitka, the Tlingit woman came up the stairs to our rooms and gently woke me up, telling me not to wake up my children.
Having been stationed at Patrick AFB during the first five test launches of the Space Shuttle, I had been involved in support for the STS launches, and we had seen all five from either the Space Center or from the beach along the Space Coast.
The reason I had been awakened was that I had told our host and hostess at the B&B that we were heading to Florida for a job at KSC and the morning new was all full of reports about the Challenger accident.
The launches of the STS orbiters had become routine, and that 25th launch seemed only to have the novelty of its non-astronaut teacher crew member, Krista McAuliffe to recommend it as anything new or interesting to many folks.
As my hostess brought me to sit in front of their televsion, I could not have been more shocked than to see the explosions at the wrong places and to watch the orbiter falling into the sea.
I was so grateful that the B&B owners were big-hearted and faith-filled Christians. We prayed together for the families and loved ones of the Challenger crew, and they prayed for me concerning whatever might happen next.
After we continued our journey with three days and three nights on the Ferry from Sitka to Washington State, we met many fellow travelers and the comradery was lovely. As I told an older gentlemanthat because of the Challenger accident and the lay-offs that were already being predicted at the Space Center, he encouraged me with Romans 8:28.
Something like it had been going through my mind, but at that time I didn't know much more about the Bible than John 3:16, Psalm 23 and Psalm 100. The man also prayed with me, and helped us get from the Ferry Port to the military base where we stayed while I out-processed from active duty.
God was already showing us how He would use everything for good as I learned to love and trust Him more, and as He continued to show me the purposes He intended to use me in my life.
So if you feel uncertaIn, or if you are in a transition, please take some time aside with the Lord as often as you think of It. There is a promiise in the scriptures that when we seek to draw close to God, the Lord responds by drawing close to us.
And another inspirational message I saw this morning when I first read my e-mail reminded me that the Lord is often closest when we are being "pruned." This comes from the image of the gardener or vinedresser in the parable of the vinedresser, the grapevine and the branches that Jesus teaches, found in John 7.
The vinedresser knows how to prune or support each branch so that it will be strong enough to remain on the vine, receiving its life-gIving sustenance when the cluster of grapes it bears grows heavy as it ripens.
I have come to learn that in times of transition there are practical lessons about trust and opportunities to keep receiving gifts of faith.
God has purposes for your life and for mine. But it is not necessary to seek the purposes. You only need to continue to seek -- or start seeking -- the One who has created you in love so that you will learn to be in a relationship with the fullness of that love. As you continue to get to know God in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, the purposes of your life will unfold.
The joy and fruitfulness of a life lived in love will be yours, and God will provide for you, guard you, and guide you.
I pray you will respond to the love that surrounds you and is within you. And if there is any way I am able to encourage you and pray for you, with God's help I will be very glad to do that.
In His love, grace and mercy, I am your friend.
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2013
kwharris777@gmail.com
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