A while back I was preaching, having fun, telling jokes, making my point, and just genuinely enjoying myself. Afterwards a dear old lady looked up to me with her piercing blue eyes and pointed a boney finger into my speechless expression.
"You are doing exactly what you were born to do."
Really? But it was so easy.
Later that day I was reflecting on that. I hadn't been doing anything different other than just being myself. And this is what I' was born to do? But it just seems so... so very normal.
We hear a lot about being called, using our gifts, getting into the mainstream of God's will for us, and so on down the line. Many of us spend much time consumed with one all encompassing question: Lord, what are you calling me to do?
So I thought I'd BLOG on the subject. For the next six of BLOGS I'll be sharing all around this idea of call. For now, let's frame the entire thing by saying this:
The idea of call is not a "one size fits all" concrete formula. There are many dynamics that come to play including how we're wired (personality, likes, dislikes, hobbies), what spiritual gifts we more/less find yourself working in (evangelism, administration, tongues, pastoring), our skills (handyman, business savvy, professional vocations), our conversion story (sudden and violent, gradual and over time), our geographical temperament (urban, suburban, rural), and a bunch of other things - any of which can be derailed by God in order to fit his will for whatever he's doing just because he needs someone for a particular purpose and particular time at any given particular place for any given particular season in time.
While it seems complicated, it's not.
And when things get too intense it's just best to love the Lord your God with all your heart and simply doing whatever your hand finds to do.
All the same, there are a few questions to consider around the idea of call (which I'll raise as we go along). For now, it's a safe bet to say each and every one of us has been called to something, as we are called into membership of the Body of Christ. Like organisms in the bloodstream, we may float around the Body across the years, spending time here in the arm, or up there near the eye, but by and large we each have a certain sweet spot from which God will usually root us.
That's our big take-away today: that, by virtue of who you are in Christ, you indeed do have a call.
Your call - God's sweet spot in his activities for you - is a wonderful place, customized and suited especially for you. No one else can do it like you can. You have been taylor fitted by the One who knit you in the womb pre-birth to walk in the its fullness.
In one sense, you are already walking in it. You stepped into it the day you entered into Christ. For he has called you to follow him. So, welcome! You are in your place and called according to the riches of his glory.
But it doesn't end there. Let's seek to clarify - and further pinpoint - precisely where you can position yourself so that God can get the biggest bang for his buck.