The Shaping of Things to Come

I will be doing a lot of writing and researching the next three years that I am in seminary, so I will possibly be posting things periodically that I find neat or cool.

In Dr. J. Robert Clinton's book, The Making of a Leader, he describes different stages of development in a leader. The first stage he labels as “sovereign foundations.” These are times in our lives that were beyond our control, yet God used to shape us into the people we become. Three of the sovereign foundations in my personal life include: Family, Age of Understanding, and Church.  Below are three things that I came up with that we sovereign foundations.

Family:
I was the first child born to two very young, though married, parents. This caused me to be the experimental child. I was always the guinea pig that paved the way for my siblings. Everything I had they had at a younger age. Due to all this, I was the result of my parents inexperience – something I wouldn't trade for anything.

My family has gone through and is still going through all kinds of hardships. I have even seen my parents go through significant spiritual growth despite impossible amounts of misfortunes. As a matter of fact, my dad really accepted the reality of Christ after he should have died. When I was around 10 years old or so my dad literally blew himself up. While standing in a pool of water, he cut into a main, live, electrical wire after his foreman told him the power was shut off. His nomex suit was completely burned off, and as he crawled out of the hole all he heard was people saying “he's dead.” Then, people started beating him to the ground and when he asked why, they told him he was on fire. He left without wounds (beyond losing part of an eyebrow and some hair), and for the first time in my life I saw my dad crying as he told the story. . . in church.

Things were not easy from there either. I have seen financial struggle, family struggle, and physical struggle as I grew up. One of the things my parents taught me was that life is so much more than being book smart. Intelligence in my family was measured by common sense and the ability to survive and make wise decisions in any circumstance. I feel that I have gotten a firm understanding on many things in the world because of the struggles my family has gone through. God has shown me and taught me many things, not always good things, but useful things.

Age of Understanding: 
I can remember the specific moment in my life when Christianity all made sense to me. It was when I was in a Sunday School class at twelve years old. I was thinking about Hell and the eternal consequences of not following Jesus. Prior to that moment I had understood and knew who Jesus was, but it was never something that was personal or made a lot of sense to me. For some reason everything clicked. In my twelve year old mind I knew that “I did not want to burn and burn and burn for ever and ever and ever.” More interestingly, I also realized that I wouldn't wish that punishment on anyone, even the people I disliked most or the people that hurt me most. There was no single person I could think of that I wished to go to Hell. God gave me an understanding that the consequences of not following Him were severe, and that I should never wish anyone to an eternal damnation.
Church:
I first started going to me church when I was in first grade with my grandmother. This made me the first person in my house to start attending church regularly. I have gone to the same church ever since, and I have always called it home. All the programs at my small church helped to guide me spiritually. Furthermore, I have seen my church grow to over three times the size that it used to be. I've seen them purchase a new expansion, and develop ministries. Watching my church grow from something so small is something that I don't think many people get to experience at such a young age. I saw my pastor take over the church and use dynamic leadership to push it in a direction that God saw fit. More importantly, I have seen my pastor personally go through a number of high stress situations and handle them like a champion of God.

 Now, this same church is providing me with a place to exercise and develop my ministerial gifts. They have given me places of leadership that I once joked about having when I was much younger. I never told anyone that I someday thought it would be cool to come and take over the youth group. The only person that knew was God. Who could have guessed that I would go to school and get a degree in computer science just so that I could come back and actually take over a significant part of the youth ministry and young adult ministry? God used my church and my attendance there to direct me to the point that I am now attending a seminary in order to seek ordination and work full time in ministry.

So there you have it.  Three things that were beyond my control that shaped me into who I am.  This post is in some ways related to my post about scars and how each of us develops our own story.  Thus, the challenge this time is very predictable: What are your sovereign foundations?

Your friend, brother, and companion in Christ,
-Zach Haas