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NOTES FROM THE SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
It’s The Journey That Counts, The End Will Take Care Of Itself
A very wise teacher told me that once, and I have lived long enough to know it is true. There has never been a time in my life when I did not know that God loves me. There is never been a time in my life when I did not love God. That is not to say I have not rebelled against God. I have, but I believe I still loved God in the midst of my rebellion. I grew up in a Christian family, where the church was just an extension of my immediate family. Almost everyone in our congregation, when I was a child, had a hand in helping to raise me in the faith. It was either as a Sunday School teacher, a VBS teacher, or a neighbor who cared, but I can remember so many who loved me enough to correct me when I was wrong or encourage me when I needed encouraging.
I believed and was baptized at an early age and began a journey with God where Christ was in the midst of our family’s daily life. We were not Lutheran. I did not discover the Lutheran Church until after I was 50 years old, but in my journey of faith God has always brought me along patiently and gently to the places he needed me to be. So I learned that God is extremely patient with us in the midst of each of our life’s journey. The first 50 years of that journey is a story for another day. How I came to be a Lutheran is a story that I can share with you at another time also. But today I want to give a candid shot of who I am at this point in my journey with Christ.
After going to seminary at age 52, becoming a Lutheran pastor at age 56, I have experienced the bountiful joys of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ week in and week out with people of many walks of life. If God never gives me another moment of delight in life, I can say that I have been blessed beyond measure with the joy of serving others as their pastor, and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with them. Sometimes I pinch myself and ask “What did you ever do to deserve this?”. But then I have to answer “Sue, you have not deserved any of this, it is all a bountiful and gracious gift from God.”
I currently serve as Associate Pastor at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in College Station, Texas. Before that I served as pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Prairie Hill, near Brenham, Texas, from 1994 to 2005. My introduction to Via de Cristo was as a new pastor, in 1995. I went to a Women’s Weekend (#19) at Luther Hill as a very skeptical person, but I felt I needed to check it out, since two people in my congregation kept insisting that I go. I went to Via de Cristo just so they would not keep badgering me about it.
Well, was I in for a great awakening. My husband, very independent man that he was, did not go on his Via de Cristo weekend until 2001. But the timing was right for him too. He discovered that weekend the joy of a deeper spiritual experience which he never realized was possible, and he immediately volunteered to do a talk for the 2002 men’s weekend. He got a chance to practice his talk in January at the first team practice before he died suddenly in February, but he did not make it to serve on the weekend.
God worked out another plan for Gordon Beall. Yet, his experience of Via de Cristo brought him to a deeper spiritual level with his Lord and it has blessed our whole family many times over. Via de Cristo has been an important part of this leg of my journey with God.
Losing someone I deeply loved became a walk of faith that helped me minister to others in their sorrow. It has helped me depend more fully on God, trusting him more completely for each part of our journey together. Sorrow is never what we hope for, but it is a part of life that can teach us to trust God in all things, and it can even deepen our joys beyond our understanding.
The Via de Cristo community has richly blessed me. It continues to give joy to all who serve as well as those they serve. It continues to bring renewal that is shared with all of our loved ones and acquaintances. It continues to share the good news with us again and again as we experience serving others in their journey with Via de Cristo. I know that our time together as co-ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be an important part of each of our journeys with God, and I look forward to this leg of the journey with you. It is the journey that counts.
De Colores,
Pastor Sue Beall