CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE
Along the Way
Mark Drabenstott
I just came to the end of a very long journey. The Bible tells us that little good comes from looking back—consider Lot’s wife. But we surely benefit from reflecting on where we’ve been, how we got here and what we’ve learned along the way.
The journey I just finished was my 40-plus-year work career. My reflection was heightened by, of all things, a dumpster. A bathroom remodel project brought it to our house. Short on dumpsters, they delivered one bigger than expected. I seized the opportunity to do some serious cleaning in my garage—including sorting through many boxes of papers I’d accumulated across my career.
I reckon 98 percent of my papers and folders landed in the dumpster. I went through every box, uncovering papers, books, the occasional photograph, and letters from around the world. A whole swirl of images sprung back to life—projects, places, people, events.
The boxes were the physical residue of my career. They did not capture the things I did in real time, nor the impact of those efforts. But they certainly evoked a long river of work. The more boxes I opened, the more I kept asking: Did all that sweat and toil over more than 40 years make a difference? Just what did it add up to?
There are two answers. I’m at peace with one of them.
Vanity of Vanities
Once my grand sorting effort was complete, I stood at the end of the dumpster and gazed at all those boxes sitting next to the remodel debris. I had carried each box to the dumpster over a period of a few days. The accumulation finally hit me when the last box went in.
Seeing all those years of work in a dumpster brings a bucket of cold water to your life. Was it really all for nothing?
I began recalling the words of the Preacher:
2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? … 7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; … 9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun. (Eccl. 2)
Working surely is full of weariness. One of the things I discovered in my boxes were a couple drafts of articles I wrote at the Federal Reserve, with my boss’s red ink adorning them. (He ordered red pens by the gross.) A lot of sweat and weariness. (Those drafts happily landed in the dumpster.)
Then I recalled the words that have defined work from the very beginning:
Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. … In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Gen. 3:17, 19)
I learned all about this sweat and toil on my parents’ farm long before my formal career began. (My dear mother would recall the part about thistles as we hoed them out of our soybean fields.) Those same work principles rang true as I looked back on my career.
But is that really all there is? Do we just work hard year after year and then life ends?
The Long Walk Together
There is a better way to think about our work. Other words that had guided my career also came spilling back as I gazed at the boxes. The words were given to me when my career was just starting. They came from a dear brother who was one of my faith mentors—Maurice Wubbels (a founder of WCF).
One year at Bible School, he approached me with a broad grin, placed his strong hands on my shoulders, looked me squarely in the eye and said: “Tell me, Mark, what have you been doing at the Federal Reserve that’s preparing you for the Kingdom of God?” I didn’t have a good answer at the time. But his question changed the way I thought about work. He was gently reminding me that God is constantly at work in us, creating the special circumstances that develop our talent, helping us find new ways to use that gift for His purpose. That seminal discussion came back to me many times over the years, but perhaps most vividly as I gazed into the dumpster.
The papers and memorabilia from a career don’t matter, of course. They belong in the dumpster. But there are many other things that do matter, and the ones that Maurice was inferring turn out to matter a lot.
Perseverance is surely one of the things that matter. Working for more than 40 years teaches a thing or two about not giving up. Working on countless projects, collaborating with hundreds of colleagues—I learned that the race is not always to the strong nor to the one with the best credentials. What matters most is never giving up.
I learned perseverance by completing long projects and carrying new ideas across a wilderness of doubters. As I look back now, I can see all of that was by design. I learned much about the very thing that over and over Scripture reminds us is the crowning virtue of faith. I learned a lot about overcoming—the powerful refrain of our Lord’s parting message: “To him who overcomes…”
Walking with our Lord is the other one that stands out. My career path took many twists and turns. Some were crossroads where I prayed which road to take. Others were doors that closed suddenly and without explanation. In every case, I look back now and see the hand of God working for my good—and also see the outstretched hand of Jesus lifting me up when I grew weary, stumbled or was just bewildered.
As He promised, the Lord Jesus is with us always, walking with us along the Way. I was not nearly so aware of that when my career began. I feel his presence far more acutely now. I’ve concluded that transformation is one of the big reasons life is a faith journey.
We hope you never feel alone along your way—that you are growing in faith and walking with our Lord in everything you do. WCF is working to provide the tools, support and inspiration to make your faith journey count for good. This edition of The WCF Quarterly highlights a few of the things we’re doing, including an important new video series called Faith Matters. No matter where you in your faith journey, we want to help along the Way.