She Must Be Crazy

It is 4:55 p.m. on Friday. I have been home sick for the last two days. My wife, Pam, has been sick too (as has our daughter), but at least Pam caught the bug later than me and got to the antibiotics earlier in the cycle. Still, she is not feeling well herself.

Pam knows I need to catch up after missing two days of work, and offers to make me something to eat before she goes to get some sleep. But first, she hands me a contract relating to the new church building that I need to sign and send back before 5:00. Church business, it seems, doesn't go away just because I am sick. Pam, though, thinks nothing of it -- "church business" is just part of our life.

When I was first asked to serve as the Executive Pastor of Heartland Church, my first thought was "what's Pam going to think." You know the saying: "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." Well, I wasn't really sure that this "offer" was going to make her very happy. When Pastor Dan and Pastor Sherry told Pam what they had in mind, her immediate response was that this was something I had to do. It was like we had no choice to make. In fact, her response was so quick and so confident I thought "she must be crazy."

You see, Pam doesn't make big decisions just like that. She asks questions, she does research, she wants to talk it over. If it is a really big decision, and to me this was a REALLY BIG decision, she insists that we get her father's opinion.

Well, Pam isn't crazy. In fact, when Pam signed us up for this job I think she had a pretty good idea what kind of sacrifice she -- and the whole family -- would be making. I also think the reality has fully met her expectations!!

So, what was it that made this decision so easy for her? I think it comes down to one thing -- faith. Its not just that Pam has great faith that God exists and that God wants each of us to serve in Him some way. If that were the case, she could have simply declined this invitation and been content with the other ways we were serving at the time. Rather, I think it was Pam's great faith that God has a very specific plan and purpose for each of us that, for her, in this case meant there was really no decision to make at all.