GIVE UP TO GO UP

Hadley Baker

There are times in life when one conversation can literally change everything.

I was fourteen years old.  It was a Wednesday night in February.  As was the custom, our youth group was meeting in the church’s gym. It had a carpet floor and a bad case of the echoes.  My youth minister at the time was a man named Tommy Jackson.  He had been in my life since I started in the youth program in seventh grade. That week before he had mailed everyone a letter (not an email…a real letter…yeah I am old).  As I opened it my eyes were instantly drawn to the large words in bold print: WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT MISS SERVICE THIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT.  I had no idea what trick Tommy had up his sleeve, but I knew for him to mail out a letter it must be something big.  He was one creative dude!  Understandably, the crowd that night was well above average.  We had to put out extra chairs to accommodate all the students.  Anticipation was in the air.  Expectations were high.  We knew it was something big, and it was…just not in the way we had envisioned. Through tears and heart-felt emotion, Tommy announced that he was resigning as the youth minister of Evangel Temple.  A church in The Colony had asked him to come and serve as their lead pastor.  He believed God was calling him to do this, so he was leaving Wichita Falls.  Talk about a huge swing emotionally…we were floored!  Other than the sound of those crying, the room was silent.  He didn’t send the letter to us because he had some over-the-top message for us.  It was the opposite—he was leaving!  My young mind tried to process it all.  I had never experienced anything like that before.

After Tommy finished talking, all the students formed a long line in front of the stage.  One-by-one we hugged our youth pastor and said our goodbyes.  Heavy tears flowed from heavy hearts.  We knew God was leading Tommy, but it didn’t sting any less.  Finally I got my turn.  I embraced Tommy and told him how much I appreciated all he had done for me and how much he was going to be missed.  That’s when it happened.  He said something that changed my life:

“Hadley I know I am leaving and will not be your youth pastor any more.  But I want you to know that in the few months since you gave your life to Christ, I have seen something special happen in you.  I don’t know what all your future holds, but there is no doubt that God’s hand is on your life.  He has something big for you.  No matter what He asks you to give up, do it.  You won’t regret it.”

Words cannot express how much those words impacted me.  Tommy was a spiritual hero to me.  For him to tell me that he saw God working in my life was huge!  But that part about “no matter what God asks you to give up, do it” was really hitting me.  Since my conversion I had been holding onto some things I needed to let go of.  People. Attitudes. Language. Music.  But in that moment I knew God was calling me to leave where I had been so I could go where He wanted to take me.  I couldn’t stay where I was and go to a new place at the same time.  So right then and right there I told the Lord something simple: “I’m all in.”  Tommy wasn’t the only one leaving where he had been that night. 

READ HEBREWS 12:1-3

Sometimes you have to give up things to go to the next level in your journey.     

What do you feel like God is calling you to do?  What is holding you back from answering that call?  Sometimes we wait on God to move in our life.  Is it possible that He is waiting on you?  Let me now be the one to say to you, “No matter what He asks you to give up, do it.  You won’t regret it.”