Water Walking, Part 1

Part 1 of a Sermon I preached last Sunday:

My name is Kim, and I am the Associate Director of a United Methodist Foundation. I rarely begin a sermon with that kind of information, but today it is part of a story I want to tell you. The Foundation helps people explore ways to create financial legacies to support ministry, helps churches manage resources. The Foundation holds funds in trust and distributes money to ministries across the state. On any given day, I might be writing an Agreement to establish a trust, evaluating market returns, speaking with a pastor about a custodial account for church reserves, or visiting an individual to consider how we can help match his or her desire to give with the tools to make it possible. I love my job – I love the ministry of it, I love how we are able to help people, I love using my gifts to further our mission.

I tell you all of that so that you will have a clear picture of what I do now compared to what I did before. I have a masters degree in biology, and for the 20 years prior to joining the Foundation, I worked in medical research. I worked in a laboratory, designing and carrying out experiments, analyzing data, and training others who were entering the field of clinical research.

My life and my work are very different now than what they used to be.

Three years ago, I spent a very long, dark night not able to sleep, struggling with God to discern if he was calling me to consider leaving my work of 20 years and apply for a position at the Foundation for which I was not trained, and that I had never done before. Changing careers would mean a lifestyle change, it would mean working in a different city that the one where I live, committing to travel across the state, and stretching my personality to fit work I wasn’t sure I could do. Trust me; it was a long, dark night of uncertainty. The next morning, I had no answers, no sleep, and only a certainty that I had to leave behind what was comfortable and trust God.

There is a song in the United Methodist Hymnal called Here I am, Lord. It contains the line, “I have heard you calling it in the night.” Whenever we sing it, I remember that night.

Part 2, tomorrow.