More From Lisa Stackpole

I’ve never been spontaneous. I like knowing what I’m doing and planning the steps to accomplish it well in advance. By no means would I be considered a risk-taker. This has served me well in many cases, but I realize it can also be limiting.

As I grow in my relationship with Christ, I have tried to be more open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, to better distinguish between Christ’s leading and my own desires. This isn’t always easy — perhaps you’ve felt this too. At least once, though, I listened.

After graduating from college decades ago, I got a job teaching in my hometown. In the spring of my first year of teaching, I heard about a prison ministry being started in another state. Having majored in sociology with an emphasis in correctional administration, this caught my attention. Since I would have the summer off, I wrote to the ministry’s founder and volunteered to help. Weeks passed without a response, so I made other plans. Then the letter came, accepting my offer and telling me I’d be contacted by someone to discuss housing. Providentially, the other plans I’d made were for early in the summer, so it was still possible for me to volunteer with the prison ministry for the last six weeks of my summer break. The timing was too good for me to ignore, and I accepted the offer.

On the second day of the long drive to the other state where the prison ministry was located, it hit me hard. What was I doing? I knew no one in that area. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to help much. And, well, I just didn’t do stuff like this! Despite that shocking realization, I had to laugh at God’s strategy to get me moving. (A former pastor once said, just as it’s easier for a car to be steered when it’s moving than when it’s parked, it’s easier to follow God’s guidance if you are moving than if you’re stationary!)

God richly blessed those six weeks in the fledgling organization that was to become Prison Fellowship Ministries. I was inspired not only by its founder but by the other men and women — both ex-prisoners and other people in the community — who wanted to be part of the growing effort to share Christ with people in prison. At the end of the summer, I went back home but volunteered again the following summer. The next spring I was offered a job with the ministry to coordinate a new program that organized in-prison seminars. After completing the school year, I moved from my hometown to take the job.

This was a huge step for me. While I now had several friends in the area from my summers of volunteering, I was leaving behind my family, and I didn’t really know if this new ministry would continue long-term. Some friends questioned the wisdom of leaving a stable job for one with an organization too new to have a track record. On my last Sunday at the church I had attended all my life, friends gave me the plaque I mention in today’s devotional, which reads, “The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you.” I have found this to be true. Those first steps God prompted me to take led to a 30-year career with an organization I love and with which I continue as a volunteer. While venturing out to where God leads us takes courage, as we listen for God’s voice and take that step, God is faithful to support us with power and grace. I am glad that despite my fears I went anyway.