The Faithfulness of God
As mentioned in my short bio, I finished my Masters in Christian Counseling in December of 2025, but the graduation ceremony is one week away. I wanted to spend some time sharing and reflecting on the decision to move for seminary, and how the faithfulness of God has not only grown stronger as a theological truth, but a personal experience.
My wife and I made the decision to pursue further education sometime during my fourth year of Bible college, shortly after we took hold of the Reformed tradition as our own. I had grown up in a non-confessional, non-denominational Baptist church, and was wrestling with various theological questions during my time at Bible college, and it was after attending a church with a reformed pastor and having numerous conversations with amazing mentors and friends that the Reformed understanding of who God is, what He has done, and how He has chosen to communicate with His creation, started to provide consistent and rich answers. Believing God had called us to full-time ministry, I knew that another year and a half of Bible College would not be sufficient time for training, so we started to look at various graduate programs.
There were multiple trusted leaders and friends who had attended and graduated from RTS that I was speaking with during this process, and after much prayer and conversation we made the decision to not only pursue a seminary degree at RTS, but to pick up our lives and move from Bozeman, Montana to Charlotte, North Carolina. This is when the faithfulness of God truly became a reality in my life.
I have never struggled with loneliness and isolation as much as I did when we first moved to Charlotte. We had never been here, we didn’t know a single person, in fact the only interaction we had with anyone from Charlotte was one phone call with my fantastic RTS recruiter, and a pastor at the church we are now members of. It was extremely isolating. I struggled to make friends at the seminary, partly because most of them were Presbyterians going to the same churches in the area, while we remained Reformed Baptists and attended a church 45 minutes north from the campus. But we also didn't know the culture. Everything was new. And God used this loneliness to really strip down my faith and trust in Him, challenging me to truly consider if I believe in Him, believe the Gospel, and believe the Bible as the ultimate truth and reality. To be honest I really struggled. On top of this deep isolation, I was wrestling with doubts and fears that I had never experienced before, which only casted me further into isolation.
But God showed Himself in beautiful ways during these introductory months to Charlotte that are still resonating to this day. He brought what Emily and I believe to be lifelong friendships into our lives through a small group at our church, as well as incredible relationships with coworkers at both of our jobs. God was present during these times, even when I personally felt alone and doubtful of His very existence.
I write these things not as a testimony of my struggles and challenges, but as a picture of the fact that God remains who He is no matter where we find ourselves. He is consistent when we are inconsistent. He is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. There is no person, job, home, culture, church, or material possession that will prove more faithful than God Himself, who ultimately shows His faithfulness in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
Though isolation and doubts still peak their ugly heads, and will continue to on this side of heaven, peace and stability are found on the faithful shoulders of the One who is sovereign over all circumstances. Praise God that my future is not dependent upon my unfaithfulness, but on the faithfulness of Him.
Amen.
-PJH
