Naked #10

And there is no creature hidden from His sight but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:13).

One year, I planted a church in a little town in the south of France. I had five Bible studies going, so I combined them all into a church. We met in a restaurant on Sunday evenings when the restaurant was closed, and all went exceedingly well. However, in a neighboring town a certain pastor called all the people in my church and told them to never go back. They obeyed one of their own nationality, and I was left with nothing.

For three days I laid on my living room floor and shook. I didn’t know what to do, and the Lord let me lay there and shake. On the third day He spoke, “You did everything your ex-husband asked of you, didn’t you?” I whimpered, “Yes.” He asked, “You did everything this pastor asked of you, didn’t you?” I sobbed, “Yes.” He asked one more question. “These things didn’t work out, did they?” I blurted out, “No!” He asked, “Why don’t you do what I want you to do and see if that doesn’t work out for you?”

He had been telling me for years to write, but in my moment of deep despair, I didn’t remember His words. I cried out, “What do You want me to do?” With utter glee in His voice He said, “Well, write, of course. Pull out your old radio stories, have them translated, and put them on the radio here.”

I started out with 16 radio stations and ended up with 107. The stations reported that the listening audiences numbered over twelve million listeners. Then overnight, radio went through an overhaul. No longer did they want fifteen minute programs like mine; they wanted two minute stories. Try as I might, I could not write two minute stories. So now I’m writing books, and people are telling me how their lives are changed by reading what I write.

My plans for pastoring went haywire. God’s plans for writing—worked!  He sees it all. We might as well obey!