AFFIRMATION IN HAND: 2(a) Wondrous Fate

Last September my church’s Board of Social Ministry had two persons remain onboard. Since one member was, of necessity, a 24/7 caregiver, the second member became default Chairperson. The church voters affirmed me as the Chair of Social Ministry, with a single, unspoken nay. I was just too chicken at the time to voice it.

The outgoing board, however, heard my “NAY” in clipped words at their final meeting. The busy, outgoing chair handed me her blue binder, stuffed with records, helps, and church minutes. I didn't read it for a week. As new Social Ministry Chair I felt so unlike the Dickensian character, Barkis, not willing, yet eventually wed to wondrous fate. 

I love that our Board of Social Ministry is “Jesus love" in action. This Board quietly finds volunteers to offer rides and meals for the sick. The Board shops for Thanksgiving meal groceries to poor families. We encourage the church to buy Christmas presents, which we deliver to needy kids. And in late summer, we gather school supplies to donate to meet the needs of kids at a local public school. These actions fit what God desires us to dwell on—the good, noble, praiseworthy. 

But those phone calls to recruit volunteers, I freeze up over. I can’t even muster the courage in one on one conversation to ask anyone to help fill empty Board slots!

God knows the ragged fuzzies of my life’s faith. God perceived and loved me even as a little girl who shivered in a confession box, glowing sweat, unable to hear the absolution of her first confession to God. The last time I felt that awful was when I had to stand in the hall and go to the principal's office!


 God knows my social phobias; He knows my quirky predilections. He created me, nonetheless, for an overriding purpose. And decades later, God continues to lovingly prod this grown-up girl to fulfill it.

In the Deep South heat of Summer 2010 that prod was a printed flier placed in my hand by a dreaded public school principal. Suddenly I knew what God had always known about me. Why I had to move to where I am. It wasn’t by mere default, but by design that the Chair position fell to me. And the glow now shimmering in me was not from phobic nerves, but from renewed confidence in divine purpose.

 Do you have an affirmation placed in your hand, a paper with words that give you fresh purpose? For believers such multi-affirmations are found in the well-read pages of the Good Book. In unexpected ventures, in the midst of sudden twists of wondrous fate, that historic Book breathes truth that gets you up and moving forward in confident faith.