Ephesians 4:1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
With all the assorted readings we’ve had on Calling, this verse applies to every one of them. As came up in this past Sunday’s message, no two people have identical callings, though there is overlap in several areas for every believer. The point Paul is making here is simply, “You’ve got a calling. Do it responsibly.” As I talked about on Sunday, every believer is called to be holy and to live in fellowship with Christ. When we do those two things, we are far more likely to fulfill whatever individual calling we have received. Part of our problem is that we tend to look at other people, with perhaps more spectacular or glamourous callings, and think that our calling doesn’t measure up to theirs, so we take it lightly. That’s a big mistake! We aren’t accountable for how they fulfill their calling, but we are certainly accountable for how we fulfill our own. A school nurse, or a worker in the cafeteria, isn’t a teacher, but they are still vital to the proper functioning of the school. Every calling has its own job description. We are to seek the Lord as to what that job description is, and then seek to fulfill it with all the strength, energy, and wisdom that He provides. We need to remember that God will provide everything necessary, materially and emotionally and spiritually, for every task He assigns to us. We are stewards of all those things, fully accountable to Him, and we must never forget it.
This is something I think about from time to time. The Lord has gifted me with a wide variety of abilities, to the point that I couldn’t possibly exercise them all, all the time. However, each one pops up as useful from time to time, and I must never forget it. God doesn’t waste anything! When I studied writing poetry in college, I never expected it to have any impact on my career, so to speak, but since being in Omura, I have translated hundreds of songs between English and Japanese, in both directions, and that practice in college has been put to good use. There are other abilities that I remember from time to time and feel guilty for having forgotten them, but each one has had its impact on my life in its time. My focus is to be on the One who calls me, to be fully obedient to Him, whatever shape that takes.
Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You that You have called and sent me, as Your representative. May I indeed walk appropriately to that calling, fulfilling Your purposes on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!