When Will was first deployed, I remember feeling as though my world was falling apart. However, we both had a feeling that God would reveal his future plans for Will during this “wilderness” time.
Will had been deployed for only a month when a friend asked about Will’s future plans.
“I think he’d make a really good chaplain,” I heard myself say. My words startled me so much I jumped in my seat. That thought had never run through my mind before. Suddenly, I thought, That’s it! He’s meant to be an Army Chaplain!
When I got home I emailed him with my revelation. You can imagine my excitement the next day when I got this email from him in response:
Wow! I prayed last Friday that if this was really what God wanted me to do that he would put it on your mind as well. That’s amazing. I haven’t wanted to share any of this until I was more sure about what God wanted me to do, so I have been praying about his purpose for me and that he would speak to your heart as well. I wanted him to speak to you so that I could get a confirmation that it is his will.
As for being a chaplain, I knew the army was short of them, but it didn’t hit me until I was in a unit that was deployed and hadn’t had a chaplain for a couple of months… that’s just not right. So, I decided that when our chaplain does arrive that I would ask him questions about being a chaplain without telling him or letting him know that I have been thinking about being one. The more he would tell me about what his job is and what kind of things he does, the stronger I felt about the call.
Isn’t that crazy? This was in the fall of 2003. When he came home in March of 2004, we started planning. He departed the army in the summer of 2005 and began his three-year seminary tour.
Lord, open my eyes to see the next steps you want me to take in my own life.
“For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 29:11a)