Touched By the Divine - Althea Bailey, Part IV

On Tuesday morning, she called her pastor friend to tell him what she had been experiencing.

"There's this fire inside of me...", she explained.

"There's a calling on your life, and God wants to use you", he told her.

When she got to church on Tuesday night, she discovered that there was more than one track for Bible College.  One was a new members track.  But there was also a ministerial track.  And even though she was brand new, she was drawn to the ministerial track. 

She asked someone next to her what the ministerial class was all about.  He said, "I think it's the one you take if there's a calling on your life".

Althea joined the class for the ministerial track.

Touched By the Divine - Althea Bailey, Part III

Althea contemplated everything that had been happening to her since November.

Though she hadn't made a commitment to God until December, He had already blessed her with a good job, stable finances, admission to graduate school, and a great relationship with her family. 

When she had been suffering from back pain and a broken heart simultaneously, He had provided instantaneous relief, as a supernatural answer to her prayers. 

When she was in need of comfort, after hearing about her parents pending divorce, He allowed the SUN to shine on her, through closed blinds, to assure her of His presence through her pain.

And when she doubted that He had really done that, He confirmed His signature, by leading her to a verse in the Bible that began with, "For God is a SUN and SHIELD..." (Psalm 84:11)

Touched By the Divine - Althea Bailey, Part II

December was a difficult month for Althea.  She had just ended the relationship with her boyfriend in November, and now she was dealing with her parents' pending divorce.  She had begun attending church, which was helping her to cope, but there were still days when the burden of her sadness took over. 

Christmas Eve was one of those days.

She kept thinking about how different Christmas dinner was going to be, now that her parents had decided to part ways.

Touched By the Divine - Althea Bailey, Part I

Every now and again, you are blessed to a meet a person whose fiery new-found faith reignites your own desire to walk closely with God.   For me, that person is Althea Bailey.

Althea is a delightful young woman with a vibrant personality that will warm your heart within the first few moments of speaking with her.  At only 30 years old, she's had a successful career as a neurosurgical nurse, and will begin studies in Nurse Anesthesia this coming August.

Around this time last year, Althea felt like she was on top of the world.  She had a great man in her life, her finances were in order, her plans to apply to graduate school were coming along, and all was well with her family and friends.  One-by-one,  the plans she had set were coming to fruition, and she felt that her life was complete.

That is, with the exception of one thing.  She didn't have a relationship with God.

Oh no, He didn't!

God doesn't play at all, does He?  My, oh my. Let me share.

After months of going back and forth about it, I'd finally accepted that it was time for me to move on from my job. It was a good job, and at times very personally fulfilling. But the restlessness in my spirit made it evident that there was much more for me to do "out there", and it wasn't to be done in that particular role. My season there was coming to an end.

So, I began working on "mission: New Job for Karen".