Lessons from the Wilderness
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Dear Friends,
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It is Labor Day and I was thinking about the most challenging work
I ever did. It was the summer of 1977. It would never make the highlight reel of my life. It was filled with bad choices and half-hearted moves. I was lost and trying to find my way. My world was spinning out of control and I was falling into a pit of despair. It would have been nice to have a pause button. I needed time to figure out where I was going before I totally lost it all.
That summer I took a job with my uncle as a carpenter's aide. He paid me $3.00 an hour. It probably wasn't fair to him. I was broken and was just sleepwalking through my days. I didn't give him my best efforts. My favorite time of the day was when he sent me out to get coffee for the crew. It got me out of doing any actual labor and I could stretch that into almost an hour.
Yet, I learned how to swing a hammer. I carried more than a few bundles of shingles up the ladder. I was the plywood man. I learned about framing and roofing houses. The most important lesson I learned that summer had nothing to do with carpentry. I learned that sometimes just being available was important. I was the "gofer." My job was to support the guys who were banging the nails.
Despite the fact that I wasn't operating at my best, I learned valuable life lessons that I have carried with me throughout my life and ministry. For example, I learned that even though we may be broken, God never abandons us, or even worse, gives up on us. He is always with us. More importantly, it is often in these broken places that God prepares us for our true calling.
I think about Moses. He left Egypt in disgrace and ran from his past. He spent forty years in the wilderness tending to Jethro's sheep. It was a far cry from the high hopes he may have entertained as a young man. It was in that space that he learned about servanthood. He faithfully did his job. He became a man who could be trusted to carry out his job. That's when God called him.
A few weeks ago I went to a leadership conference. One of the speakers said, "Great leadership begins when we humble ourselves and learn to serve others." We have a great example in Jesus. The apostle Paul says, "He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant..." He taught his disciples that they were to serve one another. That is our highest calling.
Preaching and teaching are important. But God is often looking for people who can put their egos aside and simply say "yes" to the tasks he has for them. He needs people like you and me to carry out the ministry to this sick and hurting world. Very often, God uses these wilderness experiences to mold and shape us so he can use us later.
Like a caterpillar who begins its process of transformation in a cocoon, that period in our lives when we feel lost and without purpose, can prepare us to become the servant leader God envisioned. So don't give up if you are wandering right now. Look to God. Pray. Go to worship. Talk with good Christian friends. Pay attention. I promise that before long you will see the hand of God. I know I did. You will too!
God bless. See you in church.
I'll be there with Jesus.
​​Pastor Cal