A thought by Max Lucado (2013-04-29) from his book, Facing Your Giants: God Still Does the Impossible (p. 160). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)
We have our plans. We know that it is what God wants. We know, “But God…” Have you had any of those, but God moments in your life? How did you handle them?
Max shares, “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 overflowed 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.”
But that wasn’t the end of the story.
Max says, “Initially, he 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 very 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.”
Max then says, “His ‘but God’ became a ‘yet God.’ Who’s to say yours won’t become the same?”
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