We'll start with a confession: I sometimes struggle to be consistant in my Bible reading. There, I said it.
Being drawn by the Spirit (and probably some feelings of guilt) to the scriptures one morning, I opened to John 10 to begin reading what would be covered at our next small group. I read chapter 10, but then kept reading. A few verses at the beginning of chapter 13 have captured my thought and have been speaking to me.
Let me ask, what has God called you to do? Some may answer "God has called me to be a pastor" or "God has called me to plant a church" or "God has called me to be a full time missionary" or maybe "God has called me to be an administrator" or "children's pastor" or "whatever it is that is your life's big calling". I say "big calling" but maybe I should say "main calling". For those of us that like some predictability and being able to put things in their nice neat box, I think when we talk main calling we may feel like if what we are doing right now is not our main calling that we are not doing what we are called to do. However, the more I see and experience, the more I believe that our "main calling" is more like a "main heading" on an outline that may have several bullet points underneath. I think sometimes we can be so focused on the main heading that we overlook or even try to avoid some of the bullet points simply because, in and of themselves, they are not the "main heading".
Another thing I have noticed, with myself especially, is that if we are trying to do what God has called us to do, trying to get to that" place", and the circumstances surrounding us are not favorable for that, we will sometimes get discouraged and stop or even give up on what God has called us to. (On a side note, was that a run on sentence? Neither grammar nor language arts were one of my strong suits. and I will try to stop using so many quotation marks.)
Let me encourage you today as I have been encouraged: God has gifted and called each of us for some type of work in His kingdom. Don't give up on that or on God. He loves us and has a plan for each of us. And God WILL fulfill His purposes.
So I will ask you again, what has God called you to do? How does the landscape of your life look right now in light of that calling? What things are here today and what can you see coming on the horizon?
Well, this is my first blog and did not intend to start out with a "series" (i really tried to resist the quotes, and the parentheses), but as things progressed it appeared that this was going to be too much for one blog post. So, over the next few posts I will be getting more specifically into some of John chapter 13 as it relates to what we have been talking about and what God has been speaking to me through the scripture.
Thanks for reading and I will see you next time.
