Where is Your Bethel?
On a recent Sunday, our pastor was preaching a message on ‘savouring the Word of God.’ He used an illustration from his last summer’s vacation in Japan, when his family climbed Mount Fuji. They were with another family whose father thrives on challenge. There are several ways up the mountain, each offering a different level of challenge. This man, of course, subjected the entire group to the most arduous one. Extremely hot at the base of the mountain, the temperature progressively dropped until they were in sub-zero weather. The climb got steeper and steeper. The trek started at 5 AM to reach the summit to watch the sun rise. By the time they were two-thirds into the climb, they were cold, exhausted, and ready to quit. But still they plodded on, step by step. Finally, they made it. There at the top, they were served hot chicken curry and tea. The pastor said that the actual sunrise was anticlimactic, but the chicken and tea were the best he had ever tasted, and he savoured every morsel.
As he spoke, my mind wandered from his point to this question: What keeps us in vocational ministry? What keeps us climbing a figurative Mount Fuji? There is no question that we have chosen the most difficult route to the summit. Why don’t we give up? There are easier ways through life.
I was asking myself that question. When things really hurt, when life came down on me personally, or on my family, why did I persist? I did have a trade I could fall back on. Why, in my eighth decade, am I still plugging away?
It’s because of Bethel. My Bethel has kept me anchored to my ministry. Remember the story? Jacob is fleeing from his brother Esau. He is enjoying a night’s sleep with a rock for his pillow. He has a dream of a ladder ascending into heaven, with angels moving up and down it. At that place, in that moment, he has an unmistakable encounter with God and receives a clarion summons into a lifetime of God-ordained service. He names the place Bethel – House of God, and he raises a monument there. It’s like driving a stake into the ground.
Jacob’s life was anything but ordinary. It was fraught with challenge, and he lived it in a much less than perfect way. But whenever he was tempted to sidetrack, either God would command him to return to Bethel, or he would return of his own volition. Bethel reminded him, it centred him, it re-energized him to stay the course.
It seems to me that in the life of every person called to vocational Christian leadership, there is a corresponding Bethel.
Moses had his Bethel – it was a burning bush in the wilderness near Sinai.
Joshua had his Bethel – it was an encounter with the captain of the Lord’s host just before he assumed the role of leader over the nomadic Israelites.
Isaiah had his Bethel – it was a vision in the temple, where the Lord summons him, anoints him, and he responds.
Mary had her Bethel – it was a visit from the angel Gabriel and the response, “Be it unto me according to your word.”
Peter had his Bethel – the place on the lake shore where Jesus reinstated him in his role as an apostle, and called him to ‘feed His sheep.’
Paul had his Bethel – headed on a path of destruction and devastation to the believing church, he is knocked from his horse on the Damascus road and turned 180 degrees to give every ounce of his life and energy to proclaim that which he once despised.
Each of these leaders had an anchor point, some key place to return to in times of doubt. Where is your Bethel? If you can identify your Bethel, the time and place where you had an encounter with the presence of God and heard His distinct summons to give your one and only life to His service, it will recenter you when times are tough, things are rough, and you are going through unwelcome stuff. You can always return to Bethel. Sometimes God directs you back there, and sometimes you go by your own choice.
I was five years old when the Lord called me to ministry. Understanding nothing of what it entailed, I nonetheless knew that, like Jacob, I was marked for life. Then life happened! Through my teenage rebellion when I wanted to get away from the call, through my secular college education when humanistic philosophy tried to trivialize the call, through my time in the workforce when colleagues mocked my call, through my own personal mental health crisis that tried to eradicate the call, through the struggles in the church when weariness threatened to overwhelm the call, through my senior years when age wants to limit the call, I have Bethel. It has been my anchor.
I have come to realize that those who are lifers in vocational ministry, those who refuse to be challenged, threatened, intimidated, or tempted away from a life committed completely to the work of ministry, have one thing in common. They have a Bethel, a time, and a place where God clearly confronted them, called them, and they said, ‘Yes.’ From that point forward, ministry was no longer one option among many; it was a decided destiny.
So, until we reach the summit of Fuji and eat the curry rice, we remember Bethel, we revisit Bethel. Because of Bethel, we carry on.
Al is an experienced pastor and counselor who works out of our ABNWT District Resource Centre in Edmonton as the Pastoral Care Coordinator. A pastor to the pastors, Al is a friend, mentor, and confidante to all.