So yesterday all the guys on staff got together to watch some important basketball game. Why no one got together for the Stanley Cup is beyond me, but apparently this is what you do in the States. Anyway, if you know me, you know that I’d almost rather watch paint dry than a televised sporting event, but I figured I’d go for awhile for the company, if not the athletes.
Again, so glad I did. At half time the boys started swapping stories, as men are apt to do. Only in this crew the stories aren’t your typical masculine fare. Instead they were telling stories about what their life was like when they started out in ministry. How they showed up, fresh out of Bible College, for their first internship…and were crushed to find out that they’d been assigned to the lawn mower for the summer. How they moved into a crappy “ministry” apartment — only to have their stuff moved out on them when they went away for the week.
By the time the game started again, I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard at these tales of how these established leaders, who seem to have it all together, started so humble and so naive. And aside from being a riot, it was also really encouraging. I’m relatively new to this ministry-as-life gig, and even though its often exciting and challenging, there are times when it, like any job, can just be routine. When meeting after meeting stacks up in front of you. When the next series is just… the next series. When its hard to see that what you’re doing even matters.
But now, any time I’m feeling a little worn out by the routine, or a little useless because nothing new and exciting is happening at this very moment… I’ll just picture Brian Howe sleeping in his car, and then waking up to another week of watering trees and weed-whacking by the pond…
And I’ll remember that God works in the little things too, and he doesn’t require us to understand how He’s teaching us. He just asks us to obey, even in the every-day stuff, and trust His promise that He will complete the good work He has started in us…
The funny thing is that the night he was homeless, he called me (living at the Pastor’s house down the street at the time) and asked me to unlock their door so he could sleep on the couch…but for whatever reason I couldn’t/wouldn’t…and alas, he spent the night in his car! WOW…things have changed!