REFLECTIONS

God’s Call

What is the next new thing God is asking you to make?  And who are the people you are called to make things with?  These are questions posed to the audience of the recent Men’s Retreat at Laity Lodge gave me a fresh perspective of God’s call to us, his children.

Mostly I associate God’s call with who He wants me to be and to perform the duties He gifted me to do.  Now those considerations are not necessarily dismissed in these fresh questions, but further discussions helped me see how God uses people in my life in ways that have nothing to do with either positions in life or unique giftedness.  And if that concept holds true for those impacting my life, then reason explains that it also holds true for me impacting theirs.

Our life stories describe the lasting impact we leave in this world.  The speaker, Kurt Thompson MD, explained how we help each other tell our stories.  What kind of story would Abraham’s life have told without Isaac’s role in it?  Or what influence would Paul’s life have had if Barnabas had not come alongside him at the beginning of their evangelistic journey?

All this makes me wonder how my life would have been without James as a childhood friend, or Tom as a golf buddy, or Walter as a business partner?  All of them have in their own way illumined my life story.  Of course, these people are among an endless list of others whose lives intersected with mine to cast light on my story.  And frighteningly, I have become an indelible part of theirs.  Our stories, mine and theirs, would be different without each other.  Through them part of my story is told not because of what we may have done together, but because they were there.  That’s the way God works.

The prophet Isaiah once found himself standing before the throne of God when he heard God ask, “Who shall I send? And who will go for us?”  Now I imagine God looking out among his committed servants for someone willing to go someplace for him.  Then, without knowing where that someplace would be, Isaiah raised his hand and answered, “Here am I. Send me!”

Bottom line, it seems to me, is that God wants to use our lives for his good purpose.  So, when we hear God’s call, what we hear him asking may not be to make something big or about a heavy responsibility to take on.  He may simply be looking for someone to represent his presence and to illumine the story of someone else’s life.

Maybe that’s what Jesus was telling us when He said,

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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