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Print At All Costs: When success isn't enough
by Barb Klemke
What value is it to climb the ladder of life to the top, only to find out that it was leaning against the wrong building?
I did just that. I climbed the ladder and achieved a level of success envied by many. But somehow, it wasn't enough.
I was raised in a loving family in a large city in Alberta, Canada. I had good parents who loved me and taught me right from wrong, frequently taking me to church when I was young. Intellectually, I believed there was a God-a distant and unavailable being higher than myself-but I didn't feel that I was important to Him. During my teen years, I searched for answers. I read the Bible all the way through. I tried praying things over and over, but felt like my prayers didn't go farther than the ceiling. He still didn't seem real.
When I was sixteen, I met Steve. I enjoyed math and excelled in it, but it wasn't one of his favourite subjects. One day our teacher asked me to help him out, and it was soon clear that Steve was more interested in the tutor than the tutoring.
We dated for about a year and then went our separate ways. During this time, I made some poor choices and strayed from the values I had been raised with.
As I entered university, I put my search for God on the shelf. I thought that I could find fulfilment and purpose in life through hard work and a profession. I studied hard and I was a very disciplined student, very driven and goal oriented. My educational degree was obtained in three and a half years.
I graduated with distinction and received letters to continue into graduate school. In my first interview with a school district I was promised a job immediately because I held a flawless evaluation in my resume. I had obtained all kinds of success, but still had an emptiness inside of me that success couldn't touch.
It was during my years at university that I met up with Steve again. He, too, had wandered from the values he had been taught at home and had already been through a marriage that ended in divorce. He was just beginning his career with the family mining business. He was searching for answers, too.
Together we decided to get to know God better, so we joined a Bible study with some Christian people. It was there that I discovered what I had been missing-it was a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that made the difference.
God was real, and I was important to Him. He loved me even when I tried to live my life my own way, without Him. Through His son, Jesus, I could know Him and find the fulfilment I had been looking for.
I prayed a simple prayer, something like this:
Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Saviour and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of woman you want me to be.
I knew that this was the answer for me, yet I was scared because a relationship with Jesus Christ involved committing my whole life to Him and asking Him to take control. I was afraid that God would want to send me to Africa as a missionary. I must tell you that I have been to Africa twice now to share my faith and would gladly go there to live if God directed me there. So the biggest decision of my life took place as I invited Christ into my life to lead me where He wanted me to go.
Steve and I were married in January of 1980. It was -40 degrees outside as we packed up and moved to Northern Alberta. I was a new wife and beginning a new life with Jesus.
I enjoyed a short term teaching job with some handicapped children and then moved to an upper primary group until our daughter was born. We moved to a different province in our country and I worked part-time for two years before taking on a full-time class of 13 year old kids. This was a challenge, and I enjoyed challenges. However these challenges took up a lot of my time. My family and my time with God suffered. I had once again put God on the shelf. My priorities had shifted and this was causing a lot of frustration in my life. I discovered that I was still trying, and failing, to find fulfilment in my career.
After discovering that I was pregnant again with our second child, I made arrangements to job share after the baby was born. However my priorities had an immediate shuffle and my teaching career halted once my son was born. Scott had very twisted and deformed feet. At the time, we were living in a very small town in Northern Canada and we were seven and a half hours away from the orthopaedic surgeon. We had weekly then biweekly trips out to change the casts (supports) on his legs. Then it changed to monthly trips for surgeries and braces.
My fulfilment could no longer be met by my career. I turned back to giving Jesus Christ my life with all these new challenges. During those years I was comforted by something that Jesus said: "My peace I give you, My peace I leave with you, I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid."
The word peace in the Bible does not just mean quietness or absence of war. Peace in the Bible is about completeness, wholeness, harmony and purpose. It means getting things back to where they were intended to be. This is what God promises to give everyone who calls on His name. He is here for all who want Him. He loves us all and wants to share His nature and His plans with us.
When my desires to return full-time to the school system became greater again, I turned to God for direction. He met that desire in a very unique way. Today I coordinate prayer groups for the schools of our city. These groups, called Mothers Who Care, meet weekly to pray for students, teachers, and administrators. I also do a lot of volunteer work in our school and have participated on many different committees.
I know that in trusting God with my life I can have a peace and purpose in my life, whether He directs me to be in the workforce or to be a stay-at-home mother. For me it is very reassuring to know that God is in my life. He has promised me a place in heaven, and He is a God that will never fail me.
"There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all costs, and God will fulfill His purpose through your life." -Oswald Chambers
What about you? Are you struggling to find answers in your own life? Is success a hollow triumph? It doesn't have to be that way. You can have peace and fulfilment through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Why not pray this simple prayer and by faith invite God to fill you with His Spirit:
Dear Father, I need you. I acknowledge that I have sinned against you by directing my own life. I thank you that You have forgiven my sins through Christ's death on the cross for me. I now invite Christ to again take His place on the throne of my life. Fill me with the Holy Spirit as You commanded me to be filled, and as You promised in Your Word that You would do if I asked in faith. I pray this in the name of Jesus. As an expression of my faith, I thank You for directing my life and for filling me with the Holy Spirit. Amen.
If you prayed this prayer, we would love to hear about it!
~Barb Klemke was raised in Alberta, Canada. She and her husband Steve reside in St. Albert, Alberta and have two children. If you would like more information about Mothers Who Care , please visit their website at www.motherswhocare.com
