The Benefit of a Forced Exit
October 1, 1998
Q102, Texas's Best Rock. How may I direct your call?" Getting up each morning at 6 a.m. to answer phones for a rock 'n' roll radio station was not my idea of using my seminary degree. Every minute seemed like an hour. Every day like a year. Each week an eternity. Just a few weeks earlier I was enjoying a fruitful and satisfying ministry on staff at a large church in southern California. I often marveled at how God crafted my circumstances to land that opportunity right after graduation from seminary. Why me? I had asked God with gratefulness. Yet after three years there, I was forced to leave the church due to a strained relationship, and I was answering phones for Texas's Best Rock. Now I asked the same question—Why me?—but feeling defeated and broken. Exit earthquake
As a single woman, I'd always put a large portion of my energies into my profession—prior to seminary a career in the YMCA and then a church ministry. But some undercover enemies had hidden themselves in the shadows of my heart. It was this "exit-from-ministry earthquake" that shook them loose and pushed them to the surface. I had a deep desire to be wanted and needed. When hired to what I thought was a great ministry position, I felt better about myself. If I didn't have a spouse, I reasoned, at least I was wanted and accepted by a church. When I entered ministry, my prayer was to please God and not people, but I was unaware of my need for approval, especially from important people. Suddenly, when forced to leave that position, I discovered my work was more than just a job; it was my value, my worth, my significance, my everything. How quickly the calls requesting me to speak stopped coming. Just weeks before I was a somebody. As a telephone ...
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