Theodidacti

Sometimes I think I am not getting anywhere at all. I wonder why God isn’t doing much with my life. Blinders! I wear blinders some days. I can only see what is in front of me. Furthermore, what I am looking for is what I want to see accomplished. But what about God? What about what he wants to accomplish in my life? I need to look around from time to time. In fact, it is sometimes a good idea to look back and see where I’ve come from—or rather, where God has brought me. I am amazed at how far he has brought me, especially when I consider the roadblocks I have placed in the way. Usually these obstacles come in the form of what I want to accomplish instead of wanting God to accomplish something that he desires.

This leads me to another recurring thought. When I have tried to make something happen—no matter how good the thing—it generally is a miserable failure. When I wanted my second church (one in Ohio) to be more inclusive, I could not get a single person of another race to come to the church. 20 years later I am at my fourth and current church and am not pursuing inclusiveness anymore; my only goal was to preach Christ crucified in my white, Southern congregation. When I look out on the congregation, amongst the white folks are Latino and Black and Asian and even a mixed-race marriage and…the people love each other in Christ. I didn’t do that; God did that!

When one looks back over the span of a life, it can be an amazing discovery of what God has accomplished. Or one could simply live with blinders on, driving down the road of life with a sort of reverse-macular degeneration, complaining that all they can see is the high price of gas, the limitations of a given day’s struggle, the weariness… instead of seeing the big picture. There are curves up ahead and more important to this post, a long road lies behind. When I look back and see what I thought at the time to be non sequiturs, I see now that God was moving me onto the road he wanted me on instead of on the road I wanted to be traveling.

He is not through with me yet. I am certain there will be some twists and turns ahead. But today it has been good to look back and see that God really has been in control. It is good to be here—because God has brought me here. His Spirit has been at work within me… often in spite of me.

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Eph 3:20-21 ESV)