Stocking Shelves Before the Super Bowl

In 1994, Kurt Warner went undrafted out of the University of Northern Iowa. No NFL team wanted him. So he did what anyone with a family to feed would do — he took a job stocking shelves at a Hy-Vee grocery store in Cedar Falls, Iowa, for $5.50 an hour.

Think about that. A man who believed God had given him the ability to play quarterback at the highest level was arranging canned goods on aisle seven. He played in the Arena Football League on weekends. He waited. He kept throwing. He kept believing that the Almighty had not forgotten him.

Five years later, in 1999, the St. Louis Rams gave him a chance when starter Trent Green tore his ACL in the preseason. Warner stepped onto the field and led what sportswriters called "The Greatest Show on Turf." He won the Super Bowl, the league MVP, and the Super Bowl MVP — all in the same season.

The apostle James wrote, "Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." Warner's grocery store years were not wasted years. They were the years patience was doing its perfect work in him.

Some of you are stocking shelves right now. Metaphorically speaking, you are in a season that feels beneath your calling. But God is not late. He is not forgetful. He is forming something in the waiting that cannot be formed any other way. Trust the timing of the One who sees the whole game.