It took a long while to find myself. To understand my God-given gifts and to understand how to use them. Along the way, I doubted myself, believed myself unworthy and generally felt like the deck of life was stacked against me.
Why that is the case, I may never truly know. I can shoot some assumptions out there, but they no-doubt would be mere speculation and perhaps sound like I blame others (I don’t). What I do know, though, is that God is always at work on me, preparing me and readying me for every next moment. I also am well aware that my words, actions and attitude can help me and others to overcome challenges like this and truly rise above them.
What do You Want to be When You Grow Up?
What a crappy question! We’ve all done it – we’ve asked kids that question like they are supposed to know. The better question might be something like “What do you love to do?” or “What are some things that most interest you?”
I say this because life has taught me a lot about understanding that the next thing may not even be a thing – yet. I’ll explain that to you in a minute. First, let me tell you about the many things I thought I would be when I got to finally grow up.
When I was a wee little lad, I wanted to be a garbage man, a postal carrier, or a fireman. I got a little older and thought maybe I would be a scientist. Then I speculated I would be involved in art somehow. Then I wanted to be a businessman. Then I thought accounting made sense so I did cooperative education my senior year of high school and realized it wasn’t my cup of tea. So I started college, intent on doing something that involved business and writing. I briefly thought I would be a reporter/journalist or maybe work on the creative team for a professional wrestling company. Seriously.
Stop laughing… I mean it.
I graduated college with the goal of working for an ad agency. Thankfully the one interview I did with an agency resulted in nothing but silence. They never even took the time to call me or send a note stating that I wasn’t a fit for them. Their loss. I moved on.
I took a job at a credit union with the intention of staying just long enough to get enough experience to do something that was not “banking” – after all, the whole accounting thing didn’t work out so I had no reason to believe this job would be any different.
Thankfully, I was wrong.
That was more than 16 years ago and the random job I never once planned for actually turned out to be a very fulfilling career. Once on the job, it didn’t take long for my role to evolve to focus on website design and online banking administration. It was a job I mostly created and it certainly didn’t even exist when I was hired. After that, I moved into product management, which was again a new position and then to a role involving business intelligence and data science. Again, that role did not previously exist. None of those roles are even on the radar of a pre-teen child of the 1980’s.
The kicker of it all is the fact that since I joined the credit union in 1999, the marketing department has evolved from a 2-3 person department to a full-fledged in-house creative agency. Yeah, the irony of all is that the job I took when I didn’t get the job I wanted turned out to be just the job I wanted in the long-run.
And that is how God works – with the long-run in perspective.
God Grows Us Up as He Grows His World
God lets us grow up as he grows his world. Using the life of Peter as an example, we can be mindful that we don’t have to be afraid, we are forgiven for our shortcomings, God is faithful in preparing us and he already knows what we will look like when we grow up. Photo Credit: Barry.Lenard via Compfight cc
Now that I have shared many highlights of my resume with you, let’s consider the life of Peter. You know, that guy. The one who was Andrew’s brother, who became a follower of Christ after being told of Jesus by Andrew. He also was the fellow who Jesus said would be his rock. The guy who walked on water until he took his eyes off of Jesus but said he would never betray Christ – then did it three times only to be forgiven by Jesus and restored and go on to be an amazingly gifted preacher and was martyred while doing so? Yeah, that Peter.
Here’s some key takeaways about belonging on the field from the life of Peter, the brash fisherman turned fisher of men:
- You don’t have to be afraid. Whether he was stepping out of a boat and onto water or on the threshold of a Gentile home, Peter had courage in Jesus.
- You are forgiven. Peter denied the Lord three times, and Jesus lovingly restored Peter to service. “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).
- God prepares us by teaching and shaping us. Peter needed correction many times. The Lord provided. We must be students of His, who are willing to learn. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go” (Psalm 32:8).
- God sees us as what we will be when we grow up. This is really my favorite one! The first time they met, Jesus called Simon “Peter.” The brash fisherman was, in Jesus’ eyes, a firm and faithful rock. “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” (Philippians 1:6). Though he was just a fisherman from Galilee, Jesus called Peter to be a fisher of men (Luke 5:10). Because he was willing to leave everything to follow Jesus, God used him mightily. His bold preaching amazed those who heard him because he was “unschooled” and “ordinary.” But then they took note that Peter “had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). Being with Jesus makes all the difference.
These are just some of the many lessons we can take away from the life of Peter and his relationship with Christ. I think we all can relate to Peter in a lot of ways too. That’s why I love this excerpt from chapter 12 of Bob Goff’s wonderful book, Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World:
…how could God think of me as His beloved? But then I remember Jesus said to one of the guys with Him that he was a rock even though He knew this same guy would deny ever knowing Him. I don’t think Jesus was blowing sunshine at Peter when He did that. Instead, I think He was calling something out from Peter. It was kind of like the coach telling me I was a real ball player – he saw it in me and was just calling it out. We get to do that for each other still today.
…
Words of encouragement are like that. They have their own power. And when they are said by the right people, they can change everything. What I’ve found in following Jesus is that most of the time, when it comes to who says it, we each are the right people. And I’ve concluded something else. That the words people say to us not only have shelf life, but they have the ability to shape life.
Get in Sync With God’s Plans and Grow Up Where You’re Planted
God has called us his beloved.
He doesn’t just put a label on it, he stamps it with his full seal of authority. And just like Peter, God has plans for us, for when we grow up, for while we’re GROWING up. Like Peter, we can be emotional and foolish. However, like Peter, God restores us and accomplishes extraordinary things through ordinary people like you and I.
Remember, God can see the long-view perspective of our grown-up selves. We should go after that vision with fierce tenacity and boldness.
This post is part of the “A Year of Listening Up” project here at 1Glories. The project is based upon the life lessons and Listen Up, Kids (LUK) wisdom shared in the book, Listen Up, Kids, which is available for purchase in in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon.com.