Heart Tracks - Called

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28...."Success is doing what we're called to do and having peace there." Anthony Evans

It's amazing how much discontent, frustration, and even anger, we who call ourselves His children experience in life. We don't like what we are, what we're doing and where we're doing it. We spend large amounts of time wishing we were somewhere else, doing other things, and enjoying much more tangible results than we are right now. This can be true in our jobs, our marriages, and yes, our ministries.

Being "successful" is ingrained into our western thinking. It has always been so in the culture of the world, and that culture has deeply penetrated the culture of the church. We want our best life, best marriage and family, and best ministry now. When we don't, especially after we've expended so much energy is seeing that we do, we fall back into depression, discouragement, frustration, and a desire to escape it all. Someone said that comparison is the thief of joy. The proof of this is found in how little joy we have because we spend so much time measuring our lives and what is happening in them with others. The natural outflow of this is going to be resentment. Resentment towards those who we deem "ahead" of us, and worse, resentment towards Him who we believe could make it all different if He really wanted to. Personally, I know this is true, because I spent a large portion of my life and ministry living in that place.

There is a lot of teaching and preaching in the church about our being called. Romans 8:28 tells us we are, that we're called according to His purpose. Our flaw is in thinking we get to decide what His purpose is. We almost always think it's a quick journey "to the top." We're blind to the reality that in God's style of measurement, we rise up by first bowing down. By yielding, surrendering to His purpose. And His purpose will always lead to the cross. And His cross will always lead to a place that our flesh will despise.

Someone said that we're obsessed with having followers rather than being obsessed with the One we're to follow. This can be seen in so much of the literature that is popular in the church today. It majors on all we can have and get in Him, or how we can add on to what we already have. We adopt corporate models instead of Calvary ones. We never ask whether or not we're feeding our flesh or our spirits with all of it.

Some years back I remember talking of all of this with a brother pastor who was not only a great pastor, but a gifted one. His fellowship was small, but one that ceaselessly ministered to it's community. When speaking of "success," especially as we usually view it in the church, he told me he'd died out to that urge to have it. He would just serve and minister with all His heart, and rejoice in the honor God allowed him in doing so. He defined Anthony Evans' above definition of success. Can we?

We who are His are all called according to His purpose. Can we surrender to the reality that His purpose may differ vastly from ours? Can we have and live in peace there when it does? Can we let the culture of the Kingdom construct and define our lives and not the world's? Can we see the honor in the call, no matter where that call places us? Or, do we go on living in comparisons, and all the frustrations and resentments they bring? What's our choice? What's yours?

Blessings,
Pastor O