Making the Right Moves
Knute Larson
Some decisions we'll never feel peace about until after they're made. The tranquility often comes after we've made the difficult choice.
— Knute Larson The candidating process for becoming pastor of The Chapel took fourteen months. During the drawn-out ordeal, I slipped into a low-grade depression I couldn't shake, losing nineteen pounds. I felt guilty for even considering the idea of leaving my church in Ashland. After fifteen good years, I wondered if I were "deserting" that church. It felt like divorce. Feeling discouraged and confused one day, I threw down what I knew to be a silly and desperate challenge before God: "Lord, I'm going to turn on the car radio. Whatever this radio preacher says will be what you are saying to me." I clicked on the dial, and the first words I heard were, "Go, I am sending you, and I will give you courage and what to say." At first I laughed. Then I cried. Naturally, I wasn't going to let this "coincidence" or the voice of John MacArthur determine my future, but it did make me fidget. A month later, still in depression, I put out another such unorthodox fleece. Late one evening, my wife and I were discussing the pros and cons of moving when I said, "Jeanine, I'm going to turn on Haven of Rest. Whatever is on the program tonight will give us the answer." She smiled. (I would have said, "Baloney," if she had proposed it.) I turned on the radio program only to hear the program's associate director explain why he was resigning and moving on to a new ministry. "I have struggled with the issue of my indispensability," I recall him saying. "But I've come to the conclusion that God can replace me in this ministry. The work here will go on, so I must take this next step in my life." We sat a few moments in ...
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