Take a sheet of paper and quickly jot down several major turning points in your life and your ministry. Don’t think about it too much. Simply note what immediately comes to mind. For example some critical turning points in my life would be the following: 1.The death of my father when I was ten.2. My first job folding bulletins at a local church. 3. Making the track team. 4. Choosing a college. 5. Joining the Peace Corps.6. Choosing a seminary. 7. Getting married. 8. My first call to a church. etc.
Now, with the list before you, without over thinking it, identify some theological truths or doctrines, that can apply to those experiences, even if you were not aware of it at the time. 1. God is a redemptive God who can transform what is tragic into possibilities. 2. The practice of hospitality by a pastor can have profound influence on your direction of life. 3. The doctrine of the incarnation suggests that God speaks through both the body and the spirit. 4. Providence can reveal itself in what appears to be ordinary decisions. I can do the same with the rest of the experiences.
The point is that these central beliefs can help us interpret the experiences of our lives and when we become accustomed to thinking in this manner, it provides us an approach by which we can think about the future as well. I once had a friend who said that when he looked ahead, he wasn’t ready to affirm predestination but when he looked back on his life and the many twists and turns that it had taken to bring him to his current place, it gave him pause to wonder. As I look back on my life, I am in awe at the invisible hand that has guided me. It gives me more confidence in facing the future. Maybe it will be so for you.
