“Catching Up”
All my life, I’ve known people who seem to be ahead of me.
People who had enough money to buy a new car or house at twenty-one. People who married and had kids right out of high school. People who scored their dream job before graduating college. People who found their lifelong friends in first grade.
Can you relate?
What’s grated on me in the past few years, though, is feeling behind in my calling and faith compared to some of the Christians I know.
People who have been in church their whole lives. People who have followed Christ since the age of three. People who have been in full-time ministry for over a decade before they’re thirty. People who have known their purpose and calling since they were teenagers, and followed that call in their education and daily life.
I’m lucky, I know, to have had the time in church, in ministry, and as a Christian that I have. But sometimes, I can’t help but think about how great it would’ve been to have had my “wake up” moment with Christ at thirteen, not eighteen. I wonder how much more impact I could’ve had by now if I’d gotten a ministry-related degree in college. How much sooner could I have answered my call to ministry? Who would I be as a sister, daughter, coworker, disciple, and friend if I were “caught up” with all the amazing, faithful, authentic Christ-followers around me?
Can I share a secret, though?
The idea of needing to catch up is a lie. And it’s a lie meant to invalidate and discourage us in our perfectly on-time walk with Christ.
The truth is, at any given moment, you are exactly where God wants you to be. He is all-knowing and all-powerful, and not a single thing happens outside of His plan or control. Proverbs 16:9 says,
In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord establishes their steps. (NIV)
Whether you start following Christ at five or eighty-five, it’s part of God’s plan. Whether you’re called to full-time ministry or occasional service at your church, it’s part of God’s plan. You’re not late to the game or behind the curve. You haven’t lost any time that God hasn’t already planned for and taken into account. There’s no need to catch up when we’ve never been and will never be behind.
It’s not a bad thing, by the way, to think about what could’ve been. Dreams and hopes are gifts from God in their own way. The danger comes when we let the glittering fool’s gold of “what if” overshadow the work God is doing in and through us here and now.
As frustrating as it is, we’ll never know what our lives would’ve looked like if we had started on the road of faith sooner. But we can rest and have peace in the knowledge that God led us onto it at exactly the right time.
