Scribbling with Crayons, Growing Up, and God

Life seems to take many twists and turns and new routes. I am not one to speak authoritatively on the activities and much less indeed the mind of God. However, as I have trekked through life (as short as it has been), it seems that God treats human folk analogous to adults' treating of preschoolers (please be not offended by this crude metaphor!).

If I hand a preschooler a crayon, the preschooler will likely fumble with it and eventually (ideally) scribble. It might strike us as strange if the preschooler looked up and said, “I am going to be a professional scribbler.” Naturally, it may be that the preschooler does indeed grow up to be an artist, but we all know that a great many doctors, teachers, and engineers also scribbled with crayons when they were preschoolers. Scribbling with a crayon was a task that led to a great many other things not necessarily professional artistry.

But it seems that many of us begin imagining that God wishes us to be professional scribblers, remaining in a particular discipline for the extent of our lives. We encounter a task, however pleasant or unpleasant, and think, “Ah, this is what I will do for the rest of my life. This is what God has called me to do. This is what God made me for!” Perhaps, some folks have this experience. In fact I am sure some folks do, but for the rest of us it’s more like a step-by-step discovery process.

(I am reminded of teenagers who build their entire futures on their fun experiences playing baseball or football; how many of them end up playing in the NFL? Later in life, how many would say that their time playing high school football was instrumental in shaping who they are today? I wager that almost none play in the NFL and most indicate those years playing high school sports as formative years)

I shall insert here some self-application. It would seem then that God does not expect me necessarily to envision every nook and cranny of the rest of my life, when God seems to direct me towards a particular task such as seminary. I am merely to focus on the task at hand and maximize the quality of time spent doing it. I am to pick up the crayon and do the best scribbling I can, knowing full well that though I may not grow up to be a professional scribbler scribbling is a step in the process of discovery and maturation.