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The Trials & Triumphs of Tentmaking

But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem…

(Gal 1:15-18)

After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

(Acts 18:1-4)

It’s 5:05 a.m.  My phone is ringing again.  I know who it is.  It’s the same automated calling system that called yesterday at this time.  I roll over to pick it up, wondering where I’ll be working today. Welcome to the unpredictable, day-by-day life of a substitute teacher.

Will I be in teaching second graders at Watertown Elementary School or trying to survive seven hours locked in the Brooklyn Center Alternative High School for teens with criminal backgrounds?  Some days those second graders were far harder to keep in line!  Another day, another dollar. One hundred bucks isn’t bad money to handout worksheets, pop in a movie and read a book until the 3:00 bell rings.  But that’s an ideal day.

There were many days when the clock seemed to move in reverse and 3:00 would never come.  But that’s not unique to this job.  That’s the rhythm of life in the nine-to-five world of punching in and punching out, just hoping to make ends meet at the end of the month.

Fortunately I could tell myself that this was only a temporary season of day-to-day employment while I worked my way through seminary studies full time in the evenings.  I saw myself as “tentmaking” by day, and preparing for ministry by night. Either way you look at it, I was living in my own Arabian desert wasteland.

Waiting & Preparation in Arabia

The divine summons I’ve mentioned so far comes with a great jolt, a sudden spark and accompanied by great excitement and anticipation for what the call will bring.  Oh, and not to mention not a little fear and trepidation as well.

Yet, there’s a catch. The divine summons is almost always followed by a divine “pace car” that holds the summoned in what can be a torturous season of circling the track while awaiting the green light.  The mountaintop moment of revelation is usually followed by a teeth-pulling time of waiting in the desert.

Abraham was old and gray before the promised child finally came.  Moses was eighty years old when his assignment was given.  After finally rescuing the Israelites from Pharaoh’s hands he was left wandering in the desert for forty years, and even then didn’t get to reach the promised land himself.  The Son of God himself who must have known his calling from eternity past waited until his thirtieth year to begin his ministry.  The apostle Paul is no exception.

After Paul is struck blind on the road to Damascus and given his divine appointment as apostle to the Gentiles, Paul tells us that he did not immediately head to Jerusalem to get started with his ministry.  Instead, we are told, he went immediately into Arabia and only after three years did he finally arrive in Jerusalem to meet the other apostles for the first time.

Scholars have long speculated on why Paul went away to Arabia and what he did there for up to three years. Some have suggested that Paul went away to the Arabian desert for a time preparation and meditation on the Scriptures in order to make sense of the biblical story in light of his newfound belief in Jesus as the true messiah of God. In modern terms, Paul may have gone back to seminary for a few years. That’s where I was led in the years following my spiritual awakening in the dining center that rainy evening in March of 2000.