In God's time

 

We all have hopes and dreams of what our life should be like or how we would like things in life to turn out.  When I was a freshman in high school, one of the first assignments I was given by my English teacher was to research and write a paper on what I wanted my career path to be.  At that point in my life, I wasn’t ready to start thinking about that kind of stuff.  I already had a job at McDonald’s that I was pretty happy with.  I mentioned this to my teacher, and she said I was selling myself short, that I could be so much more!  She suggested that I could choose a career by reading various college catalogs to find out what professional career might interest me.  I ended up writing about chiropractors and how much they could make with just a community college degree.  Of course, that was back in the late 60’s and I’m pretty sure one needs a lot more education now to become a chiropractor.

Later on in the semester we were assigned the task of describing what our hopes and dreams were in the future.  Again, I had no clue.  I was a teenager just trying to adjust to high school.  One thing I had realized from the first assignment though, was that I didn’t want to be a chiropractor.  I was happy at McDonald’s, even though it was part-time.  I had a few friends, but no girlfriends.  I was in the Boy Scouts and band.  I was an ordinary, normal kid.  I wrote my paper thinking I would have an ordinary life, with an ordinary job and maybe an ordinary family with ordinary kids.  It wasn’t a hope or dream, it was just life.

By my senior year though, I at least had an idea what I wanted to make my career in—or so I thought.  I was going to major in law enforcement and become a CHP officer, using that experience as a springboard into the governorship.  That senior year was the year that my father passed away, and my mom and I, along with my younger brother, moved north to Jackson, California.   I enrolled in the local (50 miles away) community college to study law enforcement.  I also got a transfer from the McDonald’s where I was working in Northridge to the McDonald’s in Stockton, a few blocks from the college.  To help Mom with the rent and other necessities of life, I went to a full-time position, and several promotions followed, eventually into management.  It was at this McDonald’s that I met my wife, Marilyn.  If I had followed my freshman year teacher’s advice to seek a “professional” career, this blessing would not have happened, or the many blessings that have followed since!

I continued to lead my ordinary life, but now I had an extraordinary wife to share it with.  She helped me realize that being in law enforcement and politics would not be a good fit for me.  I was good at retail management, and I could make a good living out of it.  But we soon wanted more, as most married couples do.  Much like the parents of Samson and John the Baptist, we had a desire to bring new life into the world (Judges 13:2-25, Luke 1:5-25).  We had the desire to be blessed with the gift of at least one child.  We were eventually blessed with two daughters and three grandchildren! 

As parents one finds themselves wanting more for their children.  From a secular standpoint “the more” to some is to seek to fulfill the desire of fake riches of success and freedom to do whatever one desires or feels like.  From a godly perspective “the more” is to seek to fulfill the desire of God the Father, as His son or daughter and true freedom to do His will.  For some that have been made aware of such a gift to our children, we too consecrate them to the Lord, to be set apart for the service of God.  I, for one, envy the parents of priests and nuns.  How special is that grace!

From the beginning, Samson and John the Baptist’s parents weren’t even sure if they would even have children yet in God’s time they did.  As with their story we hear of the normal everyday events and yet as their life journey unfolds, we see how it was all directed to God and His timing in answering their prayers.

So, do we want this for ourselves?  For our loved ones?  After all, aren’t we all a gift from God created for His service?