While I was attending JBC I was often sent to churches to preach. Many of these trips were to just fill-in and a few were in view of a call.
However I never was called to be a pastor at any of them.

I enjoyed my time with both Mission Band and the Ministerial Alliance. I would often get to travel to other cities with a group that would take care of the entire service.

Yet the time comes when you graduate from college and get a reality check on the real world.

Linda and I married a few days before graduation. We attended our home church and I taught Sunday school or filled in a bit.
And I wondered why I wasn’t pasturing a church.
I wanted to so bad I could taste it.

One day I got a call that a church in Kirbyville, 60 miles south, needed a pastor. We went in view of a call and preached. They had us back a few times and then asked me if I would be their pastor.
I was 24-years old and energetic.

You can be so obsessed with something that it becomes an idol; it consumes every thought you have and can lead to sin.
Amnon became so obsessed with Tamar that he became ill. 2 Sam 13:2
King Solomon was obsessed with women. 1 Kings 11:1
That’s certainly what happened in those instances and you know how that turned out.

However, it doesn’t have to lead to sinful behavior.
Though you may act against God’s will and God’s plans, He never let you down.
The greatest way to learn a lesson is to experience it; to make your own mistakes and learn from it.

Though not mentioned, per se, in the word, I believe in God’s permissive will.
That is when you are pulled by self- desire and select a way which is contrary to the best plan which God has set for you.
When you decide to do what looks good to you, His loves never lets you down. His love is the only reason for not being forsaken.
It’s only when you fulfill His perfect will, you can receive His fullness of blessings.
Leaving perfect will and doing permissive will bring limited blessings and limited peace along with sufferings and torments, into your life.

I now believe this is what happened to me. God allowed me to pastor that little church in Kirbyville as a teaching tool to me.
I stayed 7 months before I resigned.
I credited the long drive and my own inexperience. I felt that I had disappointed both the church and God.

To experience God’s permissive will should lead you to desire God’s perfect will.
To do this you must give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Rom 12:1-2