“I think you should get the worst job you can possibly find and take it.”  

This was the sage counsel that I received about three months after I stopped working in ministry.  My plans for life as a minister had taken an unexpected turn that left me without a position on a church staff.  My involvement with church life had gone from 100 miles per hour to nothing all at once.  I also found it difficult to commit to a career change at this point in my life with my heart so set on ministry.  This left me in a place of limbo, and feeling pretty low. Now, my wise friend seems to believe that my downward path is not one of disappointment but of destiny.

“Why in the world would I want to do that?”  I confusingly asked. 

“Because whatever you do, it will only be temporary.  It will not be long before God elevates you, and lifts you out of this situation.  And when that happens, no one wants to hear the story of the guy who went from one great job to another even better job.  That doesn’t help anyone.  One day you are going to share your story, and listening is going to be a man who is down on his luck.  He will be discouraged, and ready to give up.  He will be out of money and working at a job that he can’t stand.  Then you will share your story. The story of how things didn’t work out as you thought they would. How you hit a rough patch, but you kept your eyes on Jesus, and it will give him hope that God can bring him out of his situation as well.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I keep thinking about the future and how I can possibly find a way to tell my story without mentioning this season in my life.”

“That is exactly it, you won’t skip this part of the story at all. This is the very story that you will tell. How you worked in the back of warehouse or in a kitchen washing dishes. You will tell of the people you met, and the pain you now share with them. It will be the story of how God brought you out of this pit that gives others hope, not how you skipped hard times altogether.”

I am tearing up at this point, but my chest is warm with peace. I know I have a difficult road ahead, but I believe it is the right road.  I am humbled by my circumstances, and honored that God would trust me with this unconventional journey.  

“Well, it shouldn’t be hard for me to follow your advice.  Before meeting with you today I accepted a job delivering pizza.” To say this out loud releases the tears that had been building up, as well as an unexpected explosion of laughter.

“That’s perfect,” he said with a smile and a hand on my shoulder. “It looks like it’s all coming together.”

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Soon after this a friend sent me a text message from a book he had been reading.  It said, 

“When God has an impossible task, He finds an impossible man, and breaks him.”

Your ministry is not over, it is just beginning!