Some people have asked me what it's like to receive a call to the ministry. I thought I would share with those interested what that time leading up to my ordination was like.

For so many years, functionally I have still held onto this popular notion that it would be “magical”—much like going to Disneyland for the first time. Turns out, like going to Disneyland, you still have to sit in a car ride in anticipation of this super awesome park that you’ve heard about. And you have to find parking in a crowded lot. You have to wait in a very long line to get into the park. Then, once you have entered the park, more lines await you. Some are unbearably long, others are short. As soon as you get on a ride, you have to use the bathroom. Your kid couldn’t go on the ride he wanted because he was too short, so you went to It’s A Small World and the ride got stuck. After you ride one ride and feel a rush, you step on something sticky off the ride. You have many smiles, and laughs, but upon returning to your car you can’t find your car keys. Reaching into your other pocket to find your phone, you check social media to share this experience, and then you see how fantasia-fantastic someone else’s experience of Disneyland was ‘two minutes ago’ so you just post up a picture with a funny comment—and soon realize after fighting envy and rage it was only a snapshot of their whole day and they probably had a day mixed with joy and grief, suffering and glory, just like you did—but may be a little less honest about it. Your phone battery dies, you want to cry, but you notice your car keys on the ground by your car and can at least get back home. But first you have to drive there. On the drive, you smile looking back at God’s mercy and sovereign care that you somehow made it through another day—and he is to be thanked for it.

Point: The fact that it is ordinary doesn’t make it any less extraordinary. It's actually more interesting this way. A thunderbolt experience would have me doubt that God had any part of it, because it would have demonstrated that God has no time for me—that He is too busy to be involved intricately in the affairs of one man among billions, and for the long haul. So many small moments, and long hours, unique incidents, filled with the cumulative sacrifice of many have been spent to get here. God loves working through mundane means; he’s even promised to. I am overwhelmed and overjoyed with the providential kindness of the Triune God.