Wandering and Wondering...Is there a Purpose?

I love this time of year. In our family it's referred to as "spring training time." When you live life on a baseball calendar you don't count time like normal people do. Our year is explained as a season...and that season is split into three sections: the pre-season (spring training), the season (games count and the pressure is on) and the off-season (breathe, regroup, and get to know your family again). Spring training is one of my favorite times of the year because it holds new beginnings. Regardless of what the past year held, there's the excitement of a fresh chance to be great.

This year has been especially sweet for Bobby and I as our spring training home is in Orlando, Florida. Of course, Orlando is great for many reasons (a little black mouse with big ears being one of them), but Bobby and I had a moment of clarity a few nights ago as we pulled up to a stop light. He practically gasped as he looked out the window to a building on our right. "I know that place!" he said, with a voice filled with bewilderment. I looked out the window and saw a fancy restaurant called Japanese Steak House facing us. "Have you eaten there?" I asked, thinking that it looked a little rich for our lean budget. "No, that's not it..." Bobby replied, deep in thought. Suddenly it came to him, "I cleaned carpets in that place late one night." Both of us scrunched our eyebrows as we recalled a time in our lives much different than what we were living now.

After Bobby retired as a ballplayer, we immediately took a job coaching in the minor leagues of baseball. We thought it would be a short stint, after all, how hard can it be to make it to the big leagues as a coach? Sixteen years later we still found ourselves in the minor leagues. During this time Bobby and I both took on several jobs to make ends meet. Our memory of this steakhouse came to focus as we recalled selling our home in New York, putting our belongings in storage, and renting a small apartment with our kids in Orlando. Our girls Brooke and Ally were in Kindergarten and first grade, while Colton was a blankie toting 2 year old. Bobby would coach in the day for the Kansas City Royals, and then work for a carpet cleaning company at night. We almost cried as we realized we could now eat at a place that formally we could only clean the carpets of.

Sometimes I think life mirrors the experience of the Israelites, who wandered in the desert for a few decades before entering a land that promised a different type of life. They wandered because they weren't ready; and it was in their wandering that they learned to trust God. I know that Bobby and I wandered in our desert for 16 years because God wanted to cleanse, purify, recreate, and commission our hearts for His glory. Any other agenda simply won't do.

If you find yourself wandering today... stuck in a job that seems like a dead-end, raising a child that doesn't learn good lessons, loving someone that doesn't love you back, feeling lonely and looking for a greater purpose--may I encourage you with the words God spoke over those that wandered and were about to enter a new land? He simply said "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

No matter where you find yourself today, He sees your wandering, and will bring you to a new land when you're ready. Don't fight your wandering, but rather, thank God for it. It's often in the wandering that we see God's purpose take shape...even if it includes cleaning carpet to get there.

Blessings!
Gari