Making Sense of It All

For the past 11 years I've been wondering...

I've been wondering if I made the right decision to move back to Canada.

I've been wondering if I really am called to ministry.

I've been wondering if I should move back to the Philippines.

I've been wondering if I wasted 6 years following someone else's vision (G12).

I've been wondering if God was done with me in ministry.

I've been wondering if my best days are behind me.

These are difficult questions for someone like me to ask myself. I've always been a man of passion. Someone who always knew what he was doing. A person who woke up every morning excited to face a blank screen and face the challenge of creating something new. I knew who I was and what I was called to do. But for the past 11 years, I felt lost.

Then I read Neil Cole's book, Journeys to Significance: Charting a Leadership Course in the Life of Paul. As Neil unfolded the apostle's developmental journey to be the most influential Christian leader ever, I found my own situation described perfectly. I was in a season of ISOLATION. A time when God prepares his servant with lessons he would not be able to learn in the limelight of fruitful ministry. Isolation is a season when God works on a man's character, a man's convictions, and a man's practices.

I'm grateful to Neil Cole who has since become a distant (geographically) mentor and friend.