There are parts of my life that have turned out like I imagined when I was a teenager and in my early 20’s. I’ve been happily married to one woman for nearly 30 years. I have two fantastic, smart and kind children who are in their twenties. Everyone is healthy. We have a home to live in, vehicles to drive, clothes on our backs, and food in our bellies. Those are the items that I absolutely would have hoped for and expected as a much younger man.
There are also parts of my life that in no way resemble the expectations of my youth. I expected that I would be either at the top of the corporate ladder or an extremely successful entrepreneur, as I had an overabundance of ego and ambition. My education and training were meant to get me to that vocational goal, and others expected that I would achieve it as well. It shocked many, perhaps none more so than me, when God got ahold of me and gradually led me to become a pastor. Yet having now had the opportunity to pastor the same church for ten years, in the community that has been my home for twenty years, I couldn’t imagine missing out on this life to fulfill my youthful vocational expectations.
Oscar Wilde, the noted 19th Century Irish author and playwright, is credited with saying, “When the gods choose to punish us, they merely answer our prayers.” Theological differences aside, the benefit of hindsight allows me to see now that even though my bank account might look considerably different had I become some business tycoon, following that path would have left me with an enormous void that now yearned to be filled. As a youth, I lacked the understanding and perspective to see that God had a different and significantly better purpose for me – one that would build on those earlier experiences but then apply them and multiply them in a direction that I hadn’t seen coming. To have missed out on the life that I have today would certainly seem like a punishment.
So, did I simply do a bad job of scripting my life when I was younger? Well, frankly, the answer is yes. Because I didn’t know God, it never occurred to me to seek guidance from Him about the path I should take. The desires of my heart were not being shaped by the one who made my heart, so how could I have possibly known what was best for me. Yet once I started walking with God, regularly seeking His input and allowing Him to show me my path forward, life began to be more fulfilling. Definitely not easier, but certainly more rewarding.
If your current station in life is a result of decisions made without humble consultation with God, did it ever occur to you that it might be something less than God would have provided for you? Are you feeling as though there’s a void in your life, perhaps a lack of fulfillment even though you’ve followed your own path? Why not give God the opportunity to show you the reason why He created you. He might take you down a vastly different road than the one you’ve been travelling, but don’t you owe it to yourself to find out the real reason why you were placed on this Earth?
Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron