“Ok God. I am ready. I have finished my four years in college; I have learned all that I need to learn in journalism; I feel calling to do work overseas; I am ready to move on and start the ministry that you have prepared me for.”
This was me about a year ago when I graduated. I was ready to move on with my life and get a job at a paper to gain more experience for going overseas as a journeyman. I thought that I had all the education and experience required to fulfill my goal as a missionary writer. The problem was that I did not wait and listen to hear God’s response. And the response was not the most favorable to hear from the Creator of the universe and the Savior of the world: “Not yet.”
After I finished college, I thought that I would forever be done with education. I had no further ambition to pursue higher education. I was satisfied with my Bachelor’s Degree and saw no reason to seek a Master’s in anything. Even though my parents and other family members encouraged me to think about it, I had no desire to even consider going to seminary.
I specifically did not want to go seminary because I thought it would delay me from pursuing my dreams in the coming future. I thought all the requirements of learning Greek, Hebrew, Hermeneutics and other courses were ridiculous in the pursuit of becoming a missionary. The church was started by a group of fishermen, many of whom most likely never learned how to read. I thought, “If God could use a bunch of unschooled fishermen to spread the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire, why wouldn’t He be able to use me to spread the Gospel wherever He sends me with the skills that I had?”
The following year became a humbling experience. A lot of changes occurred with the organization I applied with and made things more complicated to pursue their journeyman program. And instead of a job that would help me gain experience in writing, the job I took involved me standing in front of a sink most of the day washing dishes. Slowly I began to realize that I needed to improve my skills as an evangelist, and the best way I could do that was going to seminary.
During this experience I was reminded of King David. He started out as the youngest son in his family and responsible for taking care of sheep. His life changed when the prophet Samuel came to his hometown and anointed him as the next king of Israel. If David, from that moment, went to the palace and demanded Saul to surrender the throne to him as God’s chosen one, David would most likely have made a pathetic king. He was a shepherd. He only knew how to govern sheep, but he had no idea how to govern people. He needed to gain experience to become king.
He got that experience while living in the palace as Saul’s servant. He became acquainted with the duties of the king by being at his side, by befriending his son and falling in love with his daughter. He gained experience as a warrior by slaying a giant, and becoming a captain in Saul’s army. He achieved loyalty from the people while he was on the run from Saul. When Saul died, he gained more political experience by becoming king of his own tribe. Only after Ish-Bosheth, Saul’s son, was deposed as king did David become the king that God anointed him to be.
David’s road to kingship took a long time, but God used that time to condition him to be who He created him to be. All David had to do was be patient and be obedient no matter the circumstance. The Bible is full of stories like this, where following the will of God is a process. You see that with people like Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and many others. Even those same, unschooled fishermen that I used to prove my point about refusing to go to seminary had do undergo a time of training through discipleship before they started the church.
And even Jesus followed the will of His Father through a process of growth. From a newborn baby to a local carpenter from Nazareth, Jesus took time to develop as a man and did not start His ministry until after his forty-day fast in the desert, sometime during John’s imprisonment. Now He was God and He was under no obligation to save humanity, but He did it in the way that the Father required.
From these examples, I learned that even if I know what I am going to do in my life does not mean that I am ready. God is using this time to prepare me for the work He has in store. I may not see how it plays out altogether, but I am trusting in Him to show me along the way. My job right now is to be obedient and take small steps to a larger goal. That is why I decided to follow through with going to seminary. I want to be completely prepared for whatever he requires of me. Even if it takes more time than I anticipate, I want to follow in obedience to Him.
Life Among Lions 