I never really wanted to be a college professor and I certainly did not want to be a missionary. I wanted to get a Ph.D. in engineering along with some MBA courses and become the CEO of some large technical company.
In fact, my Christian life stalled during the middle of my seven years at the University of Texas over this very question of what I should do with my career.
I knew the plans that I had for my life, and I was not willing to honestly ask God what his plans for my life might be (Romans 12:1-2).
I struggled!
My Plans vs. God's Plans
Though I hadn’t sought God about this, I simply assumed that if I offered my life to do what He wanted me to do, then I would surely be an unfulfilled missionary or minister. Furthermore, since I had never had (or knew of) a self-identified Christian professor during my seven years at the University of Texas, this life option had never occurred to me.
About two years into my Ph.D. program God, in a very special way, brought my wife and me to the place of willingly placing our future plans in His hands, believing that we would only be safe, happy, and fulfilled in the center of His will for our lives (Jeremiah 29:11). If He wanted us to be missionaries, He would surely change our hearts.
I continued my Ph.D. work as we waited patiently with anticipation for more than a year for God to lead us.
And lead us He did!
My last year in my Ph.D. program, Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru today) started a new ministry called Christian Leadership Ministries (Faculty Commons today) for Christian professors who taught in secular universities. Universities are one of the key institutions of influence in our culture, and professors are the gatekeepers who dispense that influence, for better or worse.
God called Ann and me to be “missionaries” to one of the most strategic and spiritually needy corners of the United States: the public university campus.
How remarkable that God in His providence could take something that I really did not want to be (a missionary) and combine it with something I never thought of being (a professor), to make me a “Christian” professor, a missionary to the university community, a perfect fit for my gifts, talents, training, and education.
Walter Bradley