Seventeenth Century English poet George Herbert penned a line I wish I had written.
“And now in age I bud again,” he wrote.
In 1972 I was a second-year student at a nearby community college, ready to take the next step in life. For months I had sought God–no, pestered Him–with a two-sentence prayer I repeated a thousand times each day.
I was walking across the living room at home one afternoon, badgering God with my two questions, when I got the answer.
“Lord, where do you want me to go to school?”
“Dallas,” He said.
Looking into an open heaven, I asked, “What do you want me to study?”
“Journalism,” was His reply. He gave me a picture: I saw myself writing and publishing much later in life.
In the years since, I have been a newspaper writer, magazine and book editor, magazine publisher, and public affairs officer. I have been a ghostwriter and book producer for wonderful Christian leaders who needed to get their stories “out there.”
With every career change, I have asked the Lord, “Am I where I’m supposed to be, doing what You want me to do? Am I there, Lord? Is this where the dream comes true?”
His answers have always been kind. “You are right where you are supposed to be, doing what I want you to do. You are doing well, but there’s more.”
As the years clicked by, I did everything in my power to manipulate God and hurry His plan. I am the poster child for dead works. He took me through a wilderness and stripped away every ounce of human initiative. Everything died but the memory of His voice.
Then, last October, He spoke again: “Let’s get started.”
The Spirit Today is the fulfillment of that long ago promise. It is dedicated to increasing His fame through simple stories of what He is doing in the lives of His people.
To me, it is even more. It is proof that God never forgets His promises. Though we wait long, He will bring them to pass. We can bank on it.
“Being confi dent of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
—Steve Lestarjette