Calling – Part 1

DAILY BYTE

In the beginning, the Bible tells us, God SPOKE everything into existence. All God had to do was say the word, and the heavens and the earth burst into being. How incredible, that the words that come from the mouth of God are filled with the most awesome creative and life-giving power.

God spoke the words, and it was so. And God looked upon everything that God had made and saw that it was very good.

But we are all painfully aware that God’s good creation, spoken into existence, has gone sadly awry. We live in a world that is all too familiar with the realities of war, poverty, global warming, violence, rape, abuse, AIDS and greed. Ours is a world in chains longing for liberation. Ours is a world crying out to be made new.

So I ask you, “Don’t you think it’s past time for God to speak once again? To utter words of recreating and redeeming power over this broken world?” God did so in the beginning, and look what happened. Surely God could do it again. Surely it’s not too hard for God to say, “Let there be peace in the Middle East, and throughout the world for that matter,” and for it to be so.

Surely it’s not too hard for God to say, “Let there be an end to poverty and hunger and the indignities of human deprivation,” and for it to be so.

For God to say, “Let there be the resolving of all conflicts, the healing of all hurts, the binding up of all brokenness,” and for it to be so.

If only the voice of God could sound once again over the chaos all around us, as it did in the beginning, bringing order and harmony and light and life. Wouldn’t that be something? Wouldn’t that be reason for hope and rejoicing?

The good news is that God is speaking, right now. God’s voice is sounding over the chaos of our fallen human condition, right now. Words that are filled with creative and life-giving power, that come from the very mouth of God, are being uttered right now, bringing great hope to our world.

But here’s the thing: they take shape in a most surprising and unexpected way. Sometimes barely more than a whisper, the words that can bring hope alive for our world come to us in the form of a call.

“Come, and follow me.”
“Go into all the world in my name.”
“Live the life of purpose and significance I have prepared for you.”
“Embrace the work I have ordained for you.”
“Fulfil the destiny I have dreamed for you.”
“Be the hope for this world that I have created you to be.”

That’s God’s plan. It’s a simple strategy – to call women and men to be a part of a great purpose of bringing hope to the world.

We see this plan unfolding from the very beginning. No sooner were human beings created than God was enlisting them to share in the care of creation. We see this plan unfolding as God calls Israel to be God’s people, a light unto the nations. We see it in the life and ministry of Jesus. No sooner had he begun his work of announcing the coming of the kingdom, than Jesus starts calling disciples to join him in this great mission of love to the world.

Do you see the pattern? Do you get God’s plan? To call people like you and me to be a part of what God is doing. In fact, to depend upon people like you and me to be a part of what God is doing. This is completely unexpected. Altogether surprising It’s not the plan that we would have made. But this is what God has chosen.

And when God’s call is heard and obeyed. When we place our very lives under the authority of God’s life-giving word, then quite wondrously and miraculously we become channels of hope and healing for a needy world.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord God you have a plan and purpose for my life that will bring hope to this world. Thank you. Help me to hear and obey whatever it is that you are calling me to do today. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING

Mark 1:16-18

Jesus saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.