Wednesday Read: The Redemption of Wasted Years

Moses spent forty years as a prince in Egypt, then forty years as a shepherd in Midian before God called him at age eighty to lead Israel out of Egypt (Acts 7:23, 30). Eighty years of preparation for forty years of ministry. From a productivity standpoint, this seems wildly inefficient. Couldn't God have used those eighty years differently? Were the decades in Midian wasted time?

We're obsessed with efficiency, with maximizing every moment, with not wasting time. The thought of "wasted years" terrifies us - time spent in the wrong career, wrong relationship, wrong city, wrong direction. We look back at seasons that seem unproductive and feel regret. We see years we can't get back and wonder what we missed while we were there.

But Scripture has a different perspective on time. Those forty years Moses spent in Midian weren't wasted - they were preparation. He learned to survive in the wilderness where he'd later lead Israel. He learned to shepherd sheep, which prepared him to shepherd people. He learned humility after a youth of royal privilege. He encountered God at the burning bush in Midian (Exodus 3:1-2). What looked like wasted years was actually curriculum.

Paul spent three years in Arabia after his conversion (Galatians 1:17-18) before beginning public ministry. Jesus spent thirty years in obscurity before three years of ministry. John the Baptist lived in the wilderness until his public appearance (Luke 1:80). God seems comfortable with what looks like wasted time to us because he's working in ways we can't observe.

This is Romans 8:28 in practice: "We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." All things - not just the productive years, not just the successful seasons, but all things. The failures, the wrong turns, the wasted years, the time you can't get back. God can work even those things together for good.

Notice it doesn't say all things are good - it says all things work together for good. The individual pieces might be painful, confusing, or seemingly pointless. But God is weaving them together into something purposeful. Moses' time in Midian wasn't good in itself - it was exile from his people, obscurity after privilege, shepherding instead of leading. But it worked together with his palace education and his eventual calling to produce the leader Israel needed.

What feels like wasted time in your life? What years seem pointless when you look back? What experiences feel like detours from where you should have been? God is capable of redeeming even those. Not by erasing them or pretending they didn't happen, but by weaving them into the larger story he's writing through your life.

This matters in February when you're looking back at failed January plans and feeling like you've wasted the first month of the year. It matters when you're in a season that feels unproductive, purposeless, or pointless. It matters when you wonder if you've missed your calling or wasted your best years in the wrong place. God is not limited by your mistakes, your detours, or your wasted time. He's still working all things together for good.