Now What...

For those of you who don’t know me, you may recognize me as the guy who plays bass or guitar or mandolin on most Sunday mornings. In the past few months, I have begun the process of becoming more involved at Silver Creek, in the capacity of an internship. I will be taking on roles as a need arises, but I am really using this opportunity to sort-of test the waters in a long debate I’ve had with myself and, sometimes, God.

One of the first things I can remember wanting to “be when I grow up,” was a children’s pastor. Primarily, this urge came from a fantastic relationship with my children’s pastor throughout my grade school years. I saw a man who loved what he did and was, without a doubt, striving to fulfill God’s desire for his life. And it was infectious to me.

As I grew, I swayed back and forth between a call to ministry, but what I knew for sure was that I wanted to be in the center of God’s will for me. The big trick was figuring out exactly what that was.

I’ve struggled and wrestled and lost sleep over wondering whether or not God wants me to pursue full-time ministry, and if I was to say that I felt one-hundred percent confident that that was the case, I’d be lying to you. But what I can say with great certainty is that the more I pursue this call, the more I am reassured that, at least right now, I am where I am supposed to be.

I tend to be skeptical about miraculous signs. Not because I don’t believe in them, but because I don’t want to be a sucker, seeing things that aren’t there. But a while ago, I think I saw a proverbial “burning-bush.”

I repair computers, usually in people’s homes, for a living. As a result, I drive. I drive a lot. Sometimes a hundred miles in a day. So, needless to say, I have a lot of time by myself in the car. During the past season of Lent, I gave up listening to the radio for a week, and committed to pray in the car. After being distracted time and again, I resolved to try praying out loud. It was weird at first. And I imagine that people next to me on the interstate thought I was a bit crazy, talking out loud with no one else in the car, but after a while, I got comfortable with it. It was strangely liberating. At one point, on a drive to Tacoma, I was asking God to show me his plan for me. I prayed, “God, if I can’t know your will for my future, then I pray you would show me your will for me in my present. Make my next steps clear.” And then I got greedy and asked God for a sign. A sign as to whether I am supposed to go into ministry. When I got to the customer’s house in Tacoma, I began to work on his computer. In the middle of working on it, he came up to me and asked me, out of the blue, “So are you going to become a minister or what?” True story. If that wasn’t the greedily-requested sign I asked for, then I don’t know what else would qualify.

So here I am, seeking God’s will for me, and for Ashley, on a day to day basis. And, just like we’re talking about on Sunday mornings, asking God “Now What?” at each juncture I come to. I am confident that He will continue to be faithful to reveal and help me discern each step, if nothing else, one moment at a time; and I am confident that one day, I will look back and see His hand guiding me the whole way.


Travis Gingrich