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by Charlie Wolcott

Last week, I wrote about five decisions in my life that have helped shape me into who I am now. Today, I want to share five more. These five are: 6) waiting on a major change, 7) doing the Cadre, 8) joining Worldview Warriors, 9) not taking action on job and publisher situations, and 10) beginning the prayer journey.

6) Waiting on a major change. College life was easy in terms of taking my courses but very difficult in terms of figuring out what to do with it. I did not start college until 3 years out of high school because I had no clue what to major in. I joke every now and think I still have no clue what I am doing because all I know is what God has me doing now and my general core direction. I started out going into Civil Engineering and while I had little problem with the material, I was soon quickly losing interest in doing it for my career. I had also begun writing at this time and I seriously wanted to look at changing my major to Creative Writing, something University of Texas El Paso did not offer as an undergrad degree. I prayed about it and the best advice I have ever received on any similar situation was: “When you don’t know what to do, go back to the last thing you know for sure God told you to do and go do it until he gives you another word.” Very good advice.

I decided to stay with my major for another year after losing interest and that was when God opened the door for me to look at Computer Science, where I got my Bachelor’s Degree. Had I not made that decision to wait, I would have not been at UT El Paso in 2009 or 2011 when God began making other connections which I do not have the space to go into here. That extra time period is what prepared me for going into teaching, which is my current direction until God gives me another word.

7) Doing the Cadre. My #7 and #8 decisions go together, but for different reasons. The Cadre is an accredited Biblical Worldview seminar taught by the Creation Truth Foundation. Both Steve Risner and I have completed this program. I wrote about my experiences there in this post. This was not a hard decision to make to do it, but it would have a significant impact on my life. I made four trips of four days to Oklahoma City over 2014-15 for extremely intense study. There was overall little brand new I learned in this program because I was so familiar with the Creation/Evolution topic, but it came with valuable resources and there were some things I really picked up on. Going to the Cadre is what really sparked my calling into apologetics, even though I had been practicing them on an amateur level for the previous 10 years. This program took it to a whole new level with an eagerness to teach on this material at any opportunity I can. I have taught numerous workshops for groups and conferences on the material I learned at this program.

8) Joining Worldview Warriors. Yes, being here with Worldview Warriors has been a major part of my life the last four years (starting my fifth year in January). I have never missed a single Friday and it has provided a great outlet for all the stuff God keeps pouring into me. Because of my position, my relationships, and my location, I have a hard time finding people older and more mature than I who can mentor me. Jason DeZurik is one of the few men I am able to trust in that mentor-type position. And I truly mean few. Most other men in my life either are not at my level spiritually or we simply don’t have the relationship built for such a job. Being with Worldview Warriors has greatly helped me focus and tighten my writing, and even the writing of my posts has been a great tool for me to study and develop my own spiritual life. The last four years, because of both the Cadre and Worldview Warriors, have truly been invaluable.

9) Not taking action. This one has been one of the toughest decisions I have had to make and one that is still ongoing. Early last year, I wrote about “Getting Slighted.” It is what happens when you have a calling or a task to do and the people you need to empower you to do the job keep looking anywhere but your direction. My publisher for Call to Arms has disappeared in the middle of a three-book contract and I have not heard from them in over 2 years. When I attended the Colorado Christian Writers Conference this past May, no one there in the publishing industry, to my knowledge, had heard from them in a while. I do not even know if my book can still be ordered or not. I don’t know anything about it. I have been advised to drop the contract and go with someone else, but so far each time I start looking that direction, God has been telling me to stay put. This has not been an easy decision, but it still is not has hard as it has been for my job.

I am not going to go into details for the sake of privacy, but over the last two years I have had every reason to be put into a full time teaching position in the district I am in, and I have never actually been considered outside of job interviews. It has been obvious I have never been on the radar of being hired. Every educator I have spoken to from teachers to a retired district athletic director have been thoroughly confused as to why I have not been hired as a teacher. I have been told by numerous sources to get a lawyer and talk to HR. But God keeps coming back with this message: “Don’t try to force anything.” I am still struggling with this emotionally, but I have made the decision I will not take action against the advice of MANY others. I will not try to make something happen. It has been a very difficult decision to obey the Lord in this regard, but I know he has something even better planned and he will set things straight. Both Joseph and David were slighted in ways I have been and their lives turned out just fine because they waited patiently on the Lord. So will I.

10) Beginning the prayer journey. Last July I began writing about prayer and how God is trying to take me to a deeper level. This has been the most difficult thing for me to do in my life, even harder than facing the demonic as I mentioned last week. I went strong for several months and then I got tired and I flat out have struggled to get back to it since. When we started looking at our blog post statistics and saw my "Israelite War Cry" post was the top viewed post of all time (still nearly double the #2 post), I wrote a reprise on it. God told me to write a letter to myself to get back up and back in the saddle and keep going. I have struggled and struggled to do that.

I have realized I am not going to suddenly jump to the level of the prayer lives of E.M. Bounds, Hudson Taylor, Rees Howells, or George Mueller. I won’t get there in this phase of the journey. But that does not mean I stop taking walking on it. God has kept on my case and keeps reminding me to keep going and I have been fighting laziness and flab. This journey so far has been invaluable as I already know I am at a spiritual level well beyond what I was even a year ago, but I am not done with this journey. I have to keep making the decision to stay on this journey. I cannot quit. I’m finally getting back onto my feet and I believe one of the lessons God is trying to teach me here is dependence: the practical knowledge of knowing I need God every day to get me through to make it all work, and not on my own abilities.

I don’t want these last two posts to be boasts about what I have done. These are decisions in following God which have had a significant effect on my life. God is the one who is making this happen, not me. All I am doing is going along with him for the journey.

Are you in the middle of some tough decisions? Are you struggling to keep going on what you know you are supposed to do? I do pray these last two posts have been an encouragement for you. Think about what God is doing in your life. One thing I do know and I can say this from both watching others and in my own life: there is absolutely nothing more rewarding than obeying God. And no matter how hard it gets, none of us who have made that decision to follow and obey God have ever regretted it, and we never will. Next week likely could have been written a month ago, but it will work for Christmas next weekend: remembering and being thankful for what God has done for you.

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