Is God calling you?

Is God calling you to go beyond what you normally would do?  Is He stretching you beyond your comfort zone?  Yippee!

I am reminded over the weekend of last year when I was diligently seeking God's way of preparing me to go to Uganda.  About the same time some personal things were going on with a family member that tore my emotions to the core. 

When I was eight years old, I lost my birth mom to complications to diabetes.  At age eleven I began praying for a brother. (God had a sense of humor with my prayers at a young age!)  A few months later, my dad remarried a wonderful lady who adopted my sister and I and she had two sons from a previous marriage who became my brothers.

For the first six months of the past year I was riding a roller coaster of former emotions from the young child losing her mother and watching my father revert a little to his bacholor state as he was taking care of her.  At the same time I was planning a trip to Uganda. 

As I'm walking this path of faith I am discovering that this event was a distraction.  I'm not being callous over my mom's illness, but I learned yesterday as I was listening to my pastor's sermon how much I understood what my feelings at the time were along with confusion and comments from others during that time.

My mom led me to know Christ when I was 12 years old beyond to what I was taught in Catholism.   One thing I've learned over the years from her is that there is a joy that comes from a sorrow that only the Holy Spirit can provide at a time when it seems all is lost.  She knew where she was going if her time came.  She was ready. 

In that light, it didn't make sense for me to really be sad, even though I was.  She's been my mom for over 38 years and took on the responsiblity with all the gusto she had!  She had her call from God.  I had mine. I called her every day for six months or close to it.

I believe that whatever she was going through last June to the next several months, God healed her of it in January.  In the same manner had I used the distraction to change my plans of going to Uganda and stayed home it wouldn't have changed the plans God had for her or for me.  We each had our own journey at that time to walk through. 

This life is not our own as much as we'd like it to be.  Some day we will have a judgement day.  We will be judged in how we conducted ourselves in the walk God has led us on.  All He asks is that we submit to His will and His call.  It makes life so much easier and sweeter when we do.