Out Here Hope Remains

There is hope for the helpless ... Cry Out To Jesus. -- Third Day

Monday, February 21, 2005

Endings Are Beginnings

Tomorrow I will go to WOSM and record five last radio programs. I have been doing "Afternoon Break", a five-minute weekday radio program, for about two years. When I first asked to do it, the elders gave an open-ended approval. This meant that if the time came that we could not pay for it, then we would end the outreach. That time has come. I'm feeling a bit melancholy about it. I don't know why, really. I have had almost no response to the program (which is to be expected ... how many people that you listen to on the radio do you actually contact?). I never listen to myself on the radio. The times I have done so have given me the shivers. It takes up a good part of a day to go over and record the programs at the station, a couple of days a month. So, I should be relieved, right? But I'm not. I am a firm believer in God's mysterious will. He is working in ways I will never know. I pray before each recording session that God will use His message to bless and uplift those who hear - even if I never know it. I believe it was good for our church - a positive message each day on the only Southern Gospel station on the Mississippi Coast. I was able to associate with some of the finest people I have met, including the owners of the station. I believe it was good for me because it gave me vision for the potential harvest. And in all, it was pretty cheap compared to other media. Still, I also believe that endings are beginnings. Perhaps there is an unknown new beginning for outreach that will become known soon. Or just maybe I need to accept that I have asked God to help me with my time management and the hectic life I have been living (often mentioned on this blog), and He has provided now some free time that can be used in prayer. To me, this is an uncomfortable transition ... a bittersweet milestone in my work for the Lord on the Coast. I will add one more thing ... and that is that if this radio program is a part of His ministry in ways I do not know, and His will reigns, this may not be the end at all. But that is all in the Hands of my Abba. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)