2008 was a difficult year for me. That year, I was indefinitely suspended from the University of Alabama, my grandmother died, and two weeks later my father died unexpectedly. It was a very difficult year.
Near the end of that year, the voice of the Lord spoke to me and instructed me to pray for the nations and people in the places the Lord would send me. I found these instructions strange since I had barely ventured outside the state of Alabama. Nevertheless, I began to pray. I converted my second bedroom into a prayer room and I prayed fervently for friends, family, and the people of other nations.
In May 2010, I was working as a supervisor in the Tuscaloosa County Jail when I quit my job to finish school. We had just hired two recent graduates from the University of Alabama and my colleagues thought I was crazy. One co-worker said, “Fool, we just hired two people with degrees who you will be supervising and you are going to quit your job to go finish your degree?”
With no income and the threat of eviction, I graduated from the University of Alabama in May 2011.
I began working as a car salesman at CarMax after graduation. Initially, I was earning a fraction of what I was earning when working in the jail. My former colleague was right, I was a fool.
I left CarMax to return to school and completed my masters degree, the first in my immediate family to do so. The journey was not easy.
While in college, my income never exceeded $15,000 a year. I struggled tremendously but I remembered what God promised me. In 2014, I purchased my passport because I believed it was the first step in fulfilling the promise of God. Two years later, I have interned in the Bahamas, traveled to Brazil, South Korea, Palestine/Israel, Turks & Caicos, and I am currently in South Africa.
Just outside the house where I am living in South Africa, there are beautiful Gum trees. Their fruit is produced in what looks like an oversized acorn.
I’m learning to accept the processes that almost always accompanies God’s provision. If God promises a tree but gives a seed, we must develop the wisdom to know the tree is inside the seed. And we must have the patience to endure the process of growth and development.
God’s word came to me 8 years ago. Since then,I have lost loved ones, nearly been evicted, been criticized, been sick almost to the point of death, and have had little to no income. God promised me a tree but gave me a seed. Had I given up, I would never have seen the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living. Be patient! Wait on the Lord!