It was my junior year of college, and I was broke. Realizing that next semester’s $3,500 bill was looming, I went down to a local paint store and asked the manager how a youngster like myself could learn how to paint houses for a living. He gave me about 30 minutes of his time and soon filled my Honda hatchback full of brand-new gear. I spent that day and the next nailing signs on telephone poles around Seattle to try to get work.
Within two hours I got my first call, and by the end of the summer I had put away $10,000 for the next school year.
At the time, I was so thankful that I would be able to finish my college degree, but I had no idea how important this trade would be to God’s call on my life.
I’m now 46 and haven’t had to paint a house for four years. With a bad back, I’m quite content to make a part-time living from speaking and training other leaders around the globe, but I will never lament the 20-some years God blessed me with a trade that would sustain my full-time calling to ministry.
Wait. Read that last statement again. I want to make sure you caught this incarnational key: my worldly vocation was directly connected with my calling as a vocational minister. I received my call to ministry from God when I was a sophomore in college, and I remember it like it was … today. I woke up and knew that every waking moment would now be about helping the lost, leery and least find faith in Jesus. I just knew it! I changed my major to religion and psychology and upon graduation went right into seminary. From there it was 10 years with Youth for Christ, then I made the transition into our first church plant. And although each phase of full-time ministry changed drastically, one common gift held it all together. My job as a painter. I unknowingly experienced the power of seeing my secular life as inextricably linked to my sacred calling.
As my family grew, expenses grew and the stakes got higher, but I never varied from my morning and evening prayers that went something like this: “Lord, thanks for how you always provide, so send me work or send me money. I’ll respond to whatever way you choose to bless me.”
And it worked. Keep reading
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