A couple of days ago I wrote about what I feel God calling for me is – to come along side others in their sojourning through life. But the question to answer today is, “How did I arrive at this point?”
This journey for me has been a, borrowing from The Beatles, a long and winding road – educationally, spiritually, experientially, and personally. It began on a fall night in 1981, though the ground work was laid long before that, when I said yes to Christ. Adventures and challenges have been part of my life ever since – marriage, moving, living, growing, listening, and obeying. My internal wiring, living, learning, loving, and laboring has been part of the transformational process God has had me on for the past 30 years.
There have been some key people and events that I look at as markers that define this adventure. Jim Duncan, the man who first discipled me in what it meant to be a Christian. We were brought together from Ohio and Minnesota in Havre, MT for a 3 year crash course in Christianity. While in Havre, I preached my first sermon, it wasn’t that good, it wasn’t that long, but I know that it was the message God had for that congregation that day.
From Havre, there as a nomadic phase where we learned to trust more fully on God as we spent time in Minnesota, Missoula, MT, back to Bemidji, MN before finally settling in Grand Rapids, MN. It was in Grand Rapids where my leadership skills were developed, my preaching skills were honed a bit more, and I took on a variety of teaching opportunities with in the church and a private Christian school. The latter experience once again proved God’s faithfulness. It was during this time that we adopted both our kids, built our home and thought that we were there for the long haul. It was here that I also learned that my plans aren’t always God’s plans.
In 1997 I was in Washington DC for a Promise Keepers event, when I heard that still small voice of God saying it’s time to go to seminary. I didn’t know why, but in the fall of 1998 we packed our things and move back the the Twin Cities. Just before I was to begin seminary my dad died and while we were down for the funeral, my wife interviewed for a number of of jobs and by weeks end had a number of job offers. I know that God was in it.
Seminary was good, I got a lot of head knowledge, but by the end of my time God had become more of an academic pursuit rather and a relational pursuit. It was at seminary that I started doing something call instructional technology – the art of using technology to enhance the learning process. When I graduated in 2001, I was offered a job at Bethel doing what I have been doing for the last three years. I thought that this was what God had in plan for me for the rest of my working career. To be honest this is a question I am pondering right now. More on that later.
None of this would have been possible if it weren’t for the gift God gave me in my wife who has been with me through this whole adventure. God gave her a talent in the medical field that has allowed her to find work and in a large part finance the adventure called life that we have been on. She has put up with my educational endeavors, occupational changes, home relocations, and me, her rather eclectic husband and sojourner in life these past 29 years.
This is the background that I have needed to lay in order to answer the questions “How do I know what God wants for me and from me?” The third and hopefully finally part of this pondering will tie things together – spiritual disciplines, spiritual director, being open and willing to say “yes”, and believe it or not a blog posting about a stupid sheep.
In short these last 10 years have been the most transformation years of my spiritual life.