Award-winning cartoonist Ron Wheeler tells his story. As far back as I can remember, I have loved to … paint … sculpt … and make stuff. My favorite creative outlet was drawing cartoons … the wilder the better. “Yuck! Can’t you draw anything normal?” “But look! His tongue is wrapped around his head!” I never thought I could make a living at it until I created a successful comic strip for my college campus paper. “The Homecoming King Award goes to cartoon character Ralph Crabtree!” People were telling me that my work reflected their life in college. It spoke the truth in a humorous way. This prompted me to try to sell my comic strip to a newspaper syndicate. “You need to broaden your horizons. Life is more than campus experiences.” Hmmm … what is life? What is truth? I did some crazy stuff to try to discover what life was all about. It didn’t work. I found no truth in any of this. With my business degree and a few connections I thought I’d give the corporate world a try. It all seemed so meaningless. “Boring!” Then the unthinkable happened. “You're fired!” “Huh? What?” Maybe this has happened to you. Turns out, this was the best thing to ever happen to me! “I’m talented! I’m creative! Everyone loves me! I’m a super-star! I Can't be fired!” The only thing I knew I could do was draw cartoons … “Sorry, we bought someone else’s strip.” … but even that wasn’t good enough. “What now? I don’t fit into the business world … and who is going to hire a worthless cartoonist? I can’t find a job anywhere!” This is when I began to go to church for the first time since I was little. “I need help.” I knew I had made a mess of my life. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). In church I learned God loves me anyway. “For God so loved the world …” He sent His Son to die on the cross for my sins and then rose from the grave. “… that He gave His one and only Son, …” And if I placed my trust in Jesus, my life would be set right with God, and I would live forever with Him. “… that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). As this sank in, I gave up my desire to be a cartoonist. I wasn’t interested in being successful or rich. I didn’t care whether I was creative or not. “I wanted to be right with God. “GOD, I GIVE UP!” Those four words changed my life. I finally gave up doing things my own way, and I placed my total trust in Christ. Then something unusual happened. Shortly thereafter, I noticed some activity outside the window of my apartment. It was coming from a small business across the street. I was curious. “Uh … would you have any work I could do? I can empty trash or sweep the floors. “First tell me something about yourself. What have you been doing?” I was a little embarrassed to tell him. “Oh, I’ve been trying to syndicate a comic strip for the last eight months.” “You mean you are a cartoonist?” “Sort of … maybe. Yeah, I guess you could call me a cartoonist.” I’d given up cartooning. I didn’t think I was any good at it. “We have been looking for someone to draw cartoons for some of the slide shows we produce for our clients.” “What?” It turned out my style matched the style of the guy who left three months earlier. They put me to work that day … the day after I placed my trust in Christ. This was the only company of its type in town that used cartoons. God placed me right across the street and waited for me to turn my heart to Him. I worked there for a year and a half learning graphic art and honing my drawing skills. Then the doors to Christian publishing opened for me, and I have been drawing cartoons for Christ steadily since 1980. “You see, God made me to create cartoons to be a communication vehicle for spreading His Truths … but He had to have me first. Once God had me, He immediately opened the doors for me to serve Him this way.” Here’s the moral of the story: give yourself fully to Jesus. Let go of your own way of doing things and place your trust in Him. God can open doors for you to serve Him with the creative gifts He has given you in most incredible ways. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
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