Calling to Crushing to Blessing - Guest Blog by Lori Roach

Today I’d like to talk to you about the callings God puts on our lives. This has been inspired by the recent developments concerning Rocky and the attack he and the Influencers have been under lately.

Why does God even give us a calling or callings in the first place? Why is it that our callings often come with a crushing of our spirit?

Ephesians 4:11-13 NLT tells us: Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

While these gifts are freely given, they do not come without a cost. We use our gifts in our calling, and callings usually have a tendency to crush our spirit, but take heart, Psalm 34:18 tells us

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.  

Many of you know me as Rick’s wife, we’re the ones who live in Portugal. Rick and I have been married for five years and have been living away from the US for just over a year. Before Rick and Lori came to be there was a lot of life lived in both of our lives.

I have been able to accomplish many things in my life, both professionally and personally, but all of those things mean almost nothing. It’s all part of who I have become, but these accomplishments really mean so little in the scheme of things. The things I have accomplished are not who I am.

However, there has been something special that has been a constant for the last 36 years of my life; my first calling, my forever calling, and I tell you what, that calling continues to crush me from time to time to this very day. My first calling arrived the moment I got pregnant, at age 20, with my oldest daughter.

I have been a mom for 36 years and I will continue to be a mom until the day I die. Even though they are all grown now, I still take my motherhood role very seriously, also with a sense of humor, a bit of a thick skin and whole lot of love.

I’ve also been a grandmother for 16 years which, as many of you know, comes with a whole new kind of love.

Between my 20^th and my 30^th birthdays I gave birth to three children, at 25 I took in and raised two more, then at the age of 51 God blessed me with an additional four children. Yes, that is nine children, three boys and six girls. With these nine children come12 granddaughters and six grandsons, and we even have one great granddaughter. Some of these people have my blood, and the blood of my ancestors coursing through their veins, others have only my outward show of love and affection that shows them they are also mine. They are grafted in, so to speak.

These amazing people have helped to make me who I am, so when Rick approached me about going to Portugal ….and an amazing sense of peace came with the suggestion, I knew God was up to something,not only in mine and Rick’s lives, but also in the lives of our children.

Why would He take us somewhere without our children and grandchildren? What could possibly be his reason? Why would this journey come with so much peace, when we knew it would stretch not only us, but these people we brought into the world and raised with our blood, sweat and tears?

My children, as wonderful as I think they are, have pushed against me at different times of their lives. I’ve tried to impart to them how important it is to have faith, hope and love. At times this was met with silence, other times with rolling eyes….it very seldom led to real conversations and at times I think I felt what Jesus must have felt in his hometown.

I do know that parents are not always the ones that lead their children to Christ, but we have to faith in the fact that they are being led, God is putting people in their path and that path does lead to Him.

In some ways I feel like God needed us to get out of the way. “Let them wrestle,” kind of felt like the message. If we would trust Him, and move to Portugal for Him, he would do a great work in not only our lives, but the lives of our kids.

Just last week my son went to church with his family, and we are starting to have real conversations about Jesus and heaven.

God is good. All the time.

I’m watching, along with God, at the miracles playing out before me in my children lives. Miracles that may not have happened if I were there.

Us moving to Portugal is part of God’s calling on our life, but both Rick and I knew it would not come without struggles and we knew we had to stand strong in our faith that this is where God was taking us, even though it meant we were leaving our children that are so near and dear to our hearts.

God’s hand was on everything leading up to our departure and He moved quickly once we got here. There is no doubt God’s favor was on our move, everything fell into place, church, friends, community, apartment….but why are we here? Why did God seem to call us to Portugal? We could have found a church and made friends in the good ol’ USA.

Rick and I look at each other sometimes, each wondering if we have made the right decision, both of us fighting the urge to fall into a depression.

Rick started thinking about The Journey and wondered if that might be a good thing to offer to some of the people we’ve met since coming here.

In December, while back in the US, we met up with Bryan Craig and Missy who just happened to be in Tulsa the same time we were. Yes, God is so good.

We talked to them about bringing The Journey to Portugal and Bryan just happened to have a couple of Journey packs with him, so he set us up on the spot. We walked away from that meeting with Bryan and Missy knowing, with a peace that surpasses all understanding, that we were in Portugal to bring the Journey here.

We are now in session four of The Journey and we have four couples going through it with us.

I cannot begin to tell you the peace the Journey has brought to me. I no longer question why God brought us here. I don’t worry about where it will go from here, because I know God has all that figured out. That work is above my paygrade. I’m more than ready to continue on the Journey path wherever it is He may lead us.

Do I think this is my calling? For now, yes, it is one of them and it has brought me a lot of comfort to know there are Godly men and women who pray over us and the people we’ve invited in to be a part of The Journey with us. That has brought a tremendous amount of peace to my world.

A couple of days ago something came across my social media feed and it resonated with me so much. You may have seen it before. It was from Patrick Weaver, and it is called, Your Oil is Not Cheap. In writing this Patrick talks about how our calling is going to crush us, there’s no other way. We have to be pressed, the chaff …. we willingly, or unknowingly …carry around… has to be blown away.

Matthew 3:12 tell us He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn, but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”

Patrick Weaver’s post and this ‘nugget’ has made me examine my past, my present and my future. It has made me think about the callings God has placed on my life, throughout my life. Where is HE taking me now, now that the role as a mom has completely shifted. Will my calling become the Journey forever? Only God knows and right now, that is okay. I’ve found peace in this moment, and I am enjoying that feeling for now.

Of course, we don’t want to confuse calling with purpose. Our purpose, as Christians never changes throughout our lives. Our purpose is to glorify God, by not only loving God, but by loving people. Also, by obeying God’s word that He so graciously laid out before us. Our ultimate purpose always comes back to bringing God glory.

Sometimes I think we feel unworthy of our calling, or maybe we think we are too busy, or embarrassed of it, or we’re not good enough, or who knows how many thousands of excuses the enemy can use to get us to not settle in and embrace our calling.

Ephesians 6:12 tell us: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The enemy comes only to steal, kill and destroy….and he absolutely targets our callings.

I think sometimes we can just be plain scared of our calling because like the writer Patrick Weaver tells us our calling is going to crush us.

 Psalm 66:10 says “You have tested us, O God; you have purified us like silver.

We have to go through the refiner’s fire. And truthfully once we have, we can see how important it is for our growth and for the benefit of the body of Christ. 

As for my experience…I’ve had a broken heart and I’ve been crushed, but through God’s amazing grace I have not been completely broken.

Remember The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.  

During my season of having a broken heart He was close, closer than He’d ever been before. And he did rescue me when my spirt was absolutely crushed. I’m not sure I’ve used that season for God’s glory yet, but I think the time is drawing nearer.

If your calling is to help the brokenhearted find hope again, you will first have to live through the experience of having a broken heart.

If your calling is to help children who have gone through trauma, it is very likely that you yourself endured trauma and have learned how God’s love helped you find peace and hope again and with that knowledge you will be able to help others find the peace and hope only Christ offers. 

If your calling is to help spread the gospel message, you will surely go through sifting… time and time again.

I think about Rocky and what it must feel like to be challenged on The Journey’s message, while he knows firsthand the lives that have been positively affected because of The Journey. What is God doing in and through this situation? ‘I’m watching’ with the rest of you.

In Gethsemane Jesus told Peter, James and John, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

When the Holy Spirit asked Rocky to ‘Watch with Me’ in regard to his grandson and he shared it with us…. Rocky’s message landed in my heart and has just stayed there. I apply it to so many situations in my life now and it has opened my eyes even wider to God’s work. Rocky’s crushing, my benefit, God working.

Maybe your calling is to empower, to lift people up when they are down, to encourage others to do great things. If this is the case, your self-esteem will likely be attacked.

My calling, and the crushing I have endured, has included the fact that I’ve been abandoned by some of the very people who were put on this earth to love me the most. This has crushed me, but I know God is starting to use this for His glory.

I know my children, at times are feeling as if I have abandoned them by moving to Portugal, so I press in and spend as much time as they like talking on the phone or video chatting over messenger and texting back in forth with them is an almost daily occurrence.

My calling as a mother is to help them through this season, and show them that just because I moved to Portugal for a while does not mean I have abandoned them. It also gives them an opportunity to reach out to the One who is truly always there in ways I can never be! The one who never abandons or moves away.

Of course, Psalm 139 is amazing and verse 7 really hits the mark. I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence.

I know God is where they need to find their security. I will always be their mom, but God….is God!!

I know He is teaching me so much through this season; about me, my role as a mom and grandmother, my role as a wife and as a woman of God. He is teaching me about the crushing and how expensive the oil is that comes from the process. Not only in my life, but also in the lives of my children and my husband.

A vineyard doesn’t produce grapes for wine for only one season. Many vineyards are 100’s of years old and every season comes with trimming, with new growth, new grapes, and a new crushing process. It takes the entire season for the fine wine to be created. Your callings are like fine wine, and you will have to be crushed each season in order for the fine wine of your callings to come through.

Ephesians 4:1-3 says, I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

That is what is produced through the crushing process; humility, gentleness, patience, love, unity of the Spirit held together with the bond of peace. That’s amazing. I see it play out every Tuesday on the Journey call. You amazing Men and Women of God, worthy of your callings, are vulnerable in sharing your life stories, and you are making a difference in not only your own lives, but you are sending out ripples through this call that are making a difference to all of us listening.

I would like to remind Rocky and all of you, that yes, our callings crush us, but they make a difference. My journey story with the Influencers is just beginning and I am so thankful for this organization, for Rocky who put his trust and faith into our Lord Jesus to bring this all to be and to Bryan who so eloquently and vulnerably leads this organization. You are making a difference. Thank you for your willingness to be crushed for the rest of us to gain from it. It is honorable and you have and are making a difference on earth and in God’s Kingdom.

A young college student, Sarah Baker, that grew up in the same northeast Oregon town that I did, wrote a post that came across my Facebook feed while I was creating this nugget. This young lady has been crushed lately and already God is using her crushing for the good of others. Her post starts out with 2 Corinthians 12:9.

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Sarah added her thoughts: “God’s grace is sufficient for us. In all our trials, worries, and disparities. When you feel like giving up, remember the promises of the Father. Written in the Bible we should open more often, through prayer and through the tears. God is sufficient for us always.”

I’ll close with Hebrews 13:20

Now may the God of peace – who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood – may he equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.