WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS, MAYBE YOU SHOULD GO GET A HAMBURGER

My apologies to the members of my church who will be reading most of this in my next Pastor’s Letter in The Good Life.

I shipped 22 boxes of stuff from my old home in Chicago to Florida recently. It was an odd collection of things ranging from a cemetery plot deed for a relative who died in 1905 to my notes from Music Theory I and II. There was also a file of papers with a letter I thought was long lost. The letter told me I wasn’t going to get a job I had applied for. It was one of the most significant letters in my life. That entails a story.

I was in my last year of college where I was a music major. My thoughts were turning toward a job which for most musicians always means teaching. There are only a few musicians like Jack Benny who can fiddle their way to fame and fortune. (By the way, I studied music at the same place Jack Benny studied for a time, Chicago Musical College.) I was reading The Lutheran magazine and discovered an ad from the Board of World Missions of the Lutheran Church in America. They were looking for short-term missioners for a variety of positions, one of which was a teacher for English and choral music at Nomensen University in Indonesia. Goodness, I had been speaking English all my life, and my area of specialization was in choral music. And I would be able to serve the church in some capacity. I pondered it for a day or two and was convinced this was what God meant me to do. I fired off a letter to the Board of World Missions, filled out endless applications. In January, 1971, I was interviewed by Pr. Norman Nuding, Secretary for Missionary Personnel.

The interview went pretty well, although there was a hitch in that they expected the teacher of English and choral music also to coach soccer. I didn’t even know the rules for soccer let alone have the ability to coach a team.  On the other hand it turned out Pr. Nuding and I had two acquaintances in common, Dr. David Larson who was my professor of choral music and Pr. Marvin Tack, a Chicago pastor whom I greatly admired.  I have since run across several other pastors who know Pr. Nuding and speak of him with great admiration.

I went home planning my future in Indonesia. It was as if my whole life up to that point had been leading me to this. A week later a letter arrived from Pr. Nuding. They had chosen another of the candidates for the position, although if he didn’t work out, I would be next on the list.  One piece of paper can destroy your life in an instant–at least it feels that way.

But here is the last paragraph from Pr. Nuding’s letter. “God go with you as you make decisions regarding the future of your life. I trust that you will find an occupation which will give you the opportunity for service to your Lord.”

Those two sentences are what God used to give me the nudge to pursue ordained ministry. I had never considered becoming a pastor. Never. I was a good enough Lutheran to know that God can be served in any vocation, but there was just something in those words of Pr. Nuding that sent me in a new direction. Within a few months I was applying to a seminary and beginning the long process of being endorsed by a synodical church vocations committee. About the only person to be surprised by this decision was me. Other people had been able to see it coming for some time.

How strange it is that God uses a moment of crushing defeat and failure to send us in new and better directions. It shouldn’t be surprising since on Good Friday everyone thought that the Powers of Evil had destroyed Jesus. An empty tomb three days later showed the world how wrong it had been. “Jesus lives! The victory’s won!” the old hymn by Christian Gellert begins. And then declares: “God will be a sure defense. This shall be my confidence.”

There is a popular saying that when one door closes, another one opens. Sometimes it is said that God opens that new door. I don’t believe that. But I do believe that sometime God uses a situation to help us see where another door has always been.

I also learned a pastoral skill from the job I didn’t get: the need for encouragement. I became a pastor in part because of the encouragement of a man with whom I spent only a few hours of my life.  When a person has suffered a set-back in life, the last thing they need is someone to berate them or tell them, “I told you so.” What I needed and what everyone needs is encouragement. As St: Paul wrote: “Therefore encourage one another and build up each other” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

God is wonderful and will do wonderful things with us. I am sure of this because I have confidence in God who never forsakes us. No matter what happens, no mater what wrong turn life seems to take trust God, our Rock, our Fortress, our Sure Defense.

May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne

Note: the picture at the head is from my ordination on May 29, 1977. You can tell it’s posed because I had my stole on which wouldn’t have been the case until after the laying on of hands. From left Dr. Robert H. Fisher, the Rev. Glen Ernst, the Rev Larry Pinnow, the Rev. Dennis Hallemeier.



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