Today’s Readings: Psalm 1; Exodus 13:3-10; Luke 12:49-59; Romans 12:1-2; Psalm 115
I was talking with my friend Tricia recently about a friend of hers named George. George had recently felt a call from God that turned his life upside down. The call was so strong George felt the urge to walk away from a variety of his relationships and commitments in order to pursue it. When Tricia expressed concern about all of the sudden changes in his life, George said, “You would understand if you had experienced God the way I did.” This got me to thinking about what many folks feel is the nature of our calls to discipleship. Lots of folks think such a call entails doing radical things like walking away from one’s family, one’s job, and one’s day-to-day commitments (i.e. the way the disciples’ walked away from their families, their jobs, and their commitments when Jesus first called them). I would certainly be the first to admit that sometimes calls do happen in such ways. After all, that’s what happened to me when I received my call to parish ministry. But calls don’t always happen that way for others. And sometimes, the most difficult way to experience a call is when it happens in the midst of your everyday life. Paul points to this experience of call in today’s passage from Romans when he wrote: “Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for God” (Romans 12:1-2 from The Message). Many folks think the first type of call (“the walking-away-from everything” call) is the most difficult type of call anyone can ever experience. I can attest that it does present pretty major challenges to a person. But in other ways the second type of call (the “turn-everything-over-to-God-right-where-you-are” call) can be even more difficult. It can be more difficult because you constantly have to face the temptation to give in to apathy or the status quo rather than follow the leading of the Spirit to bring God into your life in transformative new ways. So what type of call have you experienced in your life? The “walk-away-from-it-all” or the “turn-everything-over-to-God-right-where-you-are” call? The biggest challenge we face doesn’t come from the type of call we receive; no, the biggest challenge we face is answering that call. Til next time…
I was talking with my friend Tricia recently about a friend of hers named George. George had recently felt a call from God that turned his life upside down. The call was so strong George felt the urge to walk away from a variety of his relationships and commitments in order to pursue it. When Tricia expressed concern about all of the sudden changes in his life, George said, “You would understand if you had experienced God the way I did.” This got me to thinking about what many folks feel is the nature of our calls to discipleship. Lots of folks think such a call entails doing radical things like walking away from one’s family, one’s job, and one’s day-to-day commitments (i.e. the way the disciples’ walked away from their families, their jobs, and their commitments when Jesus first called them). I would certainly be the first to admit that sometimes calls do happen in such ways. After all, that’s what happened to me when I received my call to parish ministry. But calls don’t always happen that way for others. And sometimes, the most difficult way to experience a call is when it happens in the midst of your everyday life. Paul points to this experience of call in today’s passage from Romans when he wrote: “Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for God” (Romans 12:1-2 from The Message). Many folks think the first type of call (“the walking-away-from everything” call) is the most difficult type of call anyone can ever experience. I can attest that it does present pretty major challenges to a person. But in other ways the second type of call (the “turn-everything-over-to-God-right-where-you-are” call) can be even more difficult. It can be more difficult because you constantly have to face the temptation to give in to apathy or the status quo rather than follow the leading of the Spirit to bring God into your life in transformative new ways. So what type of call have you experienced in your life? The “walk-away-from-it-all” or the “turn-everything-over-to-God-right-where-you-are” call? The biggest challenge we face doesn’t come from the type of call we receive; no, the biggest challenge we face is answering that call. Til next time…
No comments:
Post a Comment