Never Say Never

I hope your mind doesn’t go back to 2011 like mine whenever I hear this phrase. Pictures of 17 year old Justin Bieber with flowy hair singing his new release. I guess it will forever be stained in my mind. Thankfully this is not about Justin Bieber, it’s not about a song, and it isn’t about how bad certain haircuts look in hindsight (sorry, Justin).

This is about our willingness to let the Holy Spirit use us how HE wants.

We all do it. There comes a time in our life when we must choose our course. For some of us it comes in our senior year of high school, or at least close to it. Do we take a gap year? Do we go to this school or that? Do we study business, education, graphic design, or ministry? Do I even go to school or do I enter the workforce. For others it can happen later in life. It can happen once, twice, or a number of times.

If you are anything like me, when we are confronted with these kinds of decisions, we don’t just think about what we want to do, or what we will do, we also think about what we don’t want to do. It normally comes in a certain phrase. Inevitably, we all say it.

I will never _______.

For me it came in the spring/summer of 2016. I had already received a degree in finance, worked for a year or so in my field, and was on a decent track. Then came my crisis moment. Will I respond to God’s call on my life for a life of service to Him in vocational ministry? Or will I stay the course? Honestly, that decision was easy for me. It had been years in the making, and God made it abundantly clear what I should say in response. Nowadays, a call to ministry seems to be much broader than it used to. We have titles galore for all sorts of ministry positions: senior pastor, youth pastor, children’s pastor, executive pastor, and worship pastor. That’s only within the local church. Missionaries all over the world are running businesses, teaching English, doing church planting and evangelism, videography, and so much more. The parachurch world is large too.

Accepting God’s call for ministry was easy, it was choosing what to do in ministry that was tricky. As I was making the transition from business to ministry, people would ask me all the time, “Eric, what do you feel called to? Will you be a pastor like your dad?” Sitting here today I can only chuckle at my response. Here is what I said:

“I’m not sure where I feel called to yet, but I know I’m not called to missions or youth ministry.”

In other words, I’ll NEVER be a missionary or work with youth.

If you’ve read anything on this website you already know that I spent a year in Sicily as a missionary with One Mission Society. But the reason I wanted to post this today, and the reason it came to my mind, was because of what happened the other day. I oversee our Young Adult ministry at my church. One problem area in our church, and I am sure many experience this tension, is the seasons of transition. How do our 5th graders enter student ministry well? How do our high school seniors leave student ministry well? There are other times in life we experience this tension. As the Young Adults Pastor, I am trying to work closely with our Student Ministry Pastor to solve this tension in our context. How do our high schoolers become active participants in our young adult ministry? Every church will have a different response based on their context. For us, we decided it may be good for me to have exposure to our students, especially our juniors and seniors. Most of them don’t know me because I am so new to this area, and especially this church. We can’t expect them to want to be a part of the young adult ministry if they know nothing about the Young Adult Pastor.

So, here I am on a Wednesday night, standing on a stage, being introduced to our students, and leading a game with one of our interns. I’m more a volunteer than a key member of the student ministry team. But I had to chuckle to myself.

I will NEVER be a missionary.

I will NEVER work with youth.

Yet, here I am still relatively fresh into my ministry career. Missionary? Been there, done that. Work with youth? Well, not in an official capacity through a title, but check. Isn’t it funny how God works?

It makes me think of the many men and women in Scripture who said something similar. They may not have said, “I will never,” but they made excuses for their weaknesses. They told God there is no way He could use them “there.”

Moses made plenty of excuses (Exodus 3).

Jonah ran the opposite direction (Jonah 1-2).

Sarah laughed at God (Genesis 18).

Peter went back to fishing (John 21).

What about you? Where have you told God, “I will never.” Where have you made excuses when you sensed God was asking you to do something?

I really do hope that if ever you have told God, “never,” that you will one day, like me, chuckle as you do that very thing.

It all comes back to the same question for me. Are you willing? Are you willing to go wherever, do whatever, and say whatever, if God is the one asking it of you?

I must say. Just because you say “never,” it doesn’t meant mean you are destined for that very thing. It’s more of a heart posture for me. There are things God will not call me to. He doesn’t expect us to do everything, be everything, etc. But He does expect us to have a heart of willingness. We must be able to say to our Lord, like Isaiah, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8).

Are you willing?