That Old Saying

There is an old saying that sometimes God works in mysterious ways, and, frankly, I hate that phrase. It’s not that God doesn’t work in mysterious ways; it’s that God only works in mysterious ways. Honestly, I’m not sure that God is “capable” of working any other way. And it isn’t that I’m not okay with this. Yes, I would like God to be a little bit more obvious, but the older I get, the more I realize that His glory, His presence, is more profoundly evident and observable when we can look back and see that the mystery, the puzzle has come together in a beautiful picture titled Grace.

Here’s what I mean: nearly 6 months ago I took a job in a factory that makes diaper wipes. Previous to this I was a youth minister for years. Let us think about this for a moment. I went from being used by God to change the lives of teenagers to making diaper wipes. I make a product that will one day wipe poop off of the tiny butts of infants. I’ve gone from sharing Christ to making cloth destined to be covered in feces.

Life takes odd turns, eh?

6 months ago I started out as an Operator-In-Training, learning how to operate a machine I’ve never seen, in an industry I barely knew existed. In one month I was certified as a Converting Operator, with the accompanying raise. Three months later I earned my second certification as a Technical Operator, with another raise. 2 weeks later I was asked to be the Team Lead for my line (with a partial raise, and, after a 3 month probation period, another raise). In the span of less than 6 months I’ve become a team lead and will have received when it’s all said and done over 3 dollars an hour in raises. Did I mention that all three of the guys on my team have been there longer than I have?

I’d say God’s been involved, wouldn’t you?

It’s fairly astounding and nearly unbelievable (aren’t most things that God does?) when you look back on the whole scenario. While it is entirely frustrating sometimes to be in the midst of the journey, never knowing where it is that God is leading you until you’ve already arrived (Abraham comes to mind right about now), it is entirely God’s intention to produce a patient faith in each of us that allows him to guide us wherever he dang well intends to take us. God through the prophet Isaiah says,

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.

Looking back now over the last year there has been no greater reality in my life than this. May you find that the same is true of yours. 

shalom, matt