A Stumbler's Walk to Christmas | CALLED & TESTED

And Jesus... was led by the Spirit in the wilderness... being tempted by the devil. 

- Luke 4:1-2

Put out into the deep... (Jesus to Peter) 

- Luke 5:4

I've been watching the Garth Brooks autobiographical special on A&E that last few days. I remember Garth's meteoric rise to the top of the music world; watching the CMAs - wearing my high-wasted pleated jeans and brushing back my feathered hair. Garth doesn't know it, but we share a historical bond: we were both subjected to Iba Hall, the 1980's athletic dorm at OSU. Me, as a 17 year old freshman footballer, he as an older, wiser javelin thrower (yep).

I didn't frequent the dive bar/honky-tonk scene, but I remember seeing Garth once at an open mic night at the Student Union. The point... oh yeah: According to the A&E special, Garth always wanted the tours, the stadiums, the mutual adulation of performer and crowd. But it didn't begin in the arenas and stadiums. It began much smaller. Much smokier. Much darker. He was tested and tried. He failed. Then he succeeded.

So what does that have to do with Luke and our Stumbler's Walk to Christmas? This: There is always a time of testing, a time of forging, a time of lonely soul-searching that comes between the call and it's fulfillment. I think this is a universal principle, a God-created principle, that flows into most areas of our lives.

Jesus spent time in the wilderness alone, hungry and tempted. Moses herded sheep on the backside of nowhere. David played dinner music to sooth a mad king. I could go on with examples, but this is the point: Before the water-walking comes the wilderness. Before the ocean splitting comes the desert. Before the giant slaying comes the humbling drudgery.

If you are called, you will be tested.

It's late and I'm going to wrap up here. But two things first. 1) You are called. Each of us is. And 2) We will be (continually) tested. Because in heat of the test, character is forged. It may not be fun. It may all but crush us. But it is necessary. And it is good.

God, I will not fear the wilderness, the deep water, or the mundane preparation. Produce in me the character to match your call. 

For now...
D