God's Faithfulness, God's Rewards


There have been a few people in the ministry that I really, really admire. These are people that I wish that I could be more like, and I do try to emulate them in my words and deeds.

I have never been a "fangirl", and as such, have never been particularly interested in the "superstars" of ministry. Instead, I have often been attracted to those humble servants of God who have given their lives to those smaller ministries that both the world and the church shun and ignore. Their lives are well-illustrated in the lovely essay, Others May, You Cannot which is one of my very favorite bits of Christian devotional writing.

Recently, the midst of my struggle with confusion, doubt, and dissatisfaction, I received a communication with one of those ministers. She is a campus chaplain for a mainline denomination. She has spent 25 years, most of her ministry career, at the same Midwestern university. She is probably qualified to assume a pastorate in a large church, but a number of factors, both within and beyond her control, have managed to keep her where she is. She is an excellent campus chaplain: She doesn't have the funds or the human resources that the "big" campus ministries have, so the group of students that she cares for is generally fairly small. But she continues to minister to students in ways that the big campus ministries often can't. She doesn't have their pat answers, and she doesn't have their slick speakers and promotional activities. She does, however, have the Holy Spirit, who has cared for her and her "flock" for a quarter of a century. She has never married, and has cared for her mother in addition to her chaplaincy duties.

In her email to me she explained that she was engaged to get married. There are some difficulties with setting a date (distance being a primary factor), but she is engaged to someone that she loves. Now I don't believe that God is obligated to play matchmaker for all of those who serve him, but I am nonetheless struck by how this woman who has offered her life to God has, in the fullness of time, been given the opportunity to know love and marriage.

Such things offer me encouragement as I work though the less pleasant aspects of my faith.