I turned fifty yesterday! What a long and strange journey it has been. Like many, I came back to the church in my late twenties after a divorce. I was working in a manufacturing plant in Milwaukee and between child support payments, trying to hold on to my house and taking care of aging parents, I was really struggling. One night a neighbor who I hardly knew came to my door and invited me to come to a Bible study they were hosting in their home. I surprised myself by agreeing to go.

That began a faith journey that continues to this day. I always believed in something but didn’t want anyone to tell me what it was. When my life went to pieces I found I had nothing to really turn to. So I began to tentatively explore the teachings of Jesus. I was taking baby steps but I was moving in the right direction.

But I was still troubled. I worked with a fellow who didn’t believe in God at all yet everything he touched seemed to turn to gold. He had a nice house in the suburbs and all the toys. I was struggling to keep my head above water. I thought, “Come on God! I’m trying…when does it get better?”

Well, it got better. The same neighbors who had invited me to the Bible study introduced me to Julie and we’ve now been married sixteen years. More importantly, I realized that all I had been going through was preparing me for what was yet to come.

After twenty-six years I quit my job and went to work at my home church as a lay minister. Four years later I became a Licensed Local Pastor and have been blessed to serve Faith United Methodist Church in Milwaukee for two years.

A voice cries out, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3) I certainly spent time in that wilderness and that has allowed me to meet people where they are and share honestly from my own life. In a sense, I have become a highway in the desert, an avenue through which people can begin to move ahead, towards God, just as my neighbors had been for me so many years before.

I wonder sometimes why it took me so long to turn to Jesus. I guess I had to learn that true faith does not come easy and it is a struggle. And it will always be struggle because we are called to live in a world that fights us every step of the way. Everything from temptation to apathy pulls at our commitment to follow Jesus.

That’s why it is so important to take steps to renew your faith as often as you can. “Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion…” (Isaiah 40:9). For me one of the high mountains is the Lay Ministry Academy offered by our Wisconsin Conference. I went as a participant in 1996 and have continued to go back as a facilitator ever since. Every time I go it is a mountaintop experience because you encounter people who are honestly seeking a way to do ministry in their lives…not in the church but in the schools, the boardrooms and with that neighbor living next door. 

Some years ago I was walking through the machine shop at the manufacturing plant I had worked at. Marilyn, a machine operator, motioned me over and above the din of her NC machine said, “Are you really religious?” I laughed and said, “Why, does it show?” She then told me she had been diagnosed with cancer and asked if I would pray with her which we did right then and there. Moments like these are difficult to explain other than to say they are grace-filled but be assured they will come if you allow Jesus into your heart.

All contents copyright 2003 by the Wisconsin Chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action. Permission is granted to United Methodist congregations, individuals and groups to reproduce and distribute this devotional without charge. All other use requires the advance permission of the editor.