“Willem wanted to preach. By the age of twenty-five, he’d experienced enough life to know he was made for the ministry. He sold art, taught language, traded in books; he could make a living, but it wasn’t a life. His life was in the church. His passion was with the people.
So his passion took him to the coalfields of southern Belgium. There, in the spring of 1879, this Dutchman began to minister to the simple, hardworking miners of Borinage. Within weeks his passion was tested. A mining disaster injured scores of villagers. Willem nursed the wounded and fed the hungry; even scraping the slag heaps to give his people fuel.
After the rubble was cleared and the dead were buried, the young preacher had earned a place in their hearts. The tiny church over-flowed with people hungry for his simple messages of love. Young Willem was doing what he’d always dreamed of doing.
But…
One day his superior came to visit. Willem’s lifestyle shocked him. The young preacher wore an old soldier’s coat. His trousers were cut from sacking, and he lived in a simple hut. Willem had given his salary to the people. The church official was unimpressed. “You look more pitiful than the people you came to teach,’ he said.
Willem asked if Jesus wouldn’t have done the same. The older man would have none of it. This was not the proper appearance for a minister. He dismissed Willem from the ministry.
The young man was devastated.
He only wanted to build a church. He only wanted to honor God. Why wouldn’t God let him do this work?
I had intended….
I had made my preparations…
But God….
What do you do with the “but God” moments in life? When God interrupts your good plans, how do you respond?
Willem was hurt and angry. He lingered in the small village, not knowing where to turn. But one afternoon he noticed an old miner bending beneath an enormous weight of coal. Caught by the poignancy of the moment, Willem began to sketch the weary figure. His first attempt was crude, but then he tried again. He didn’t know it, but at that every moment, Willem discovered his true calling.
Not the robe of clergy, but the frock of an artist.
Not the pulpit of a pastor, but the palette of a painter.
Not the ministry of words, but of images.
The young man the leader would not accept became an artist the world could not resist: Vincent Willem van Gogh.
His “but God” became a “yet God”.
Who’s to say yours wont become the same?”
God knows what is best for us. Every single one of us was given a specific set of gifts so that we may glorify His Kingdom. And sometimes along the way we lose sight and forget that what we want may not be what we need. And the things we pursue thinking that it’s the best for us, was actually what Pastor Benny Ho will call “settling for less.”
Yes, I will obey. I will stop wallowing in self-pity and despair and pull myself together. Because I do not want to “settle for less”. Because I do not want to put God’s gifts to waste. Because I want to be the best God had intended me to be. 6 months to level up. 6 months to sanctify. 6 months to put all my dreams, my goals and my desires on hold. 6 months to put God’s first to grow in him to make sure that I will not fall back to greed and success again.
“Write today’s worries in sand. Chisel yesterday’s victories in stone.”
“Focus on giants – you stumble. Focus on God-your giant’s tumble.”
– Max Lucado
