Missed Call.

Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Missed Call. Occasionally someone will call me and I won’t get to talk to them right then. I may be in a place where my phone can’t be on, or I'm in middle of something that needs my full attention and answering a call isn’t an option at the time. Regardless of the reason, they have the option of leaving a voicemail and getting a call back from me later. It doesn’t matter if it’s a friend or if it were the President, sometimes that’s just the way it works out.
Some of us operate that way in our relationship with God, too. We go through legs of our journey with Him when we are “too busy” to answer His call at that particular moment. He has a purpose for us – a plan – a calling – yet we expect Him to leave a “voicemail” of sorts and we’ll come back to Him when it’s more convenient. I’ve known many men who confess they felt called into vocational ministry, but struggled for literally years before surrendering their lives to that calling. Why, on earth, have we come to accept that standard as ok?
Delayed obedience is, simply put, disobedience. And there is no such thing as “excused disobedience”, either. But we are professionals as excuses, though, aren’t we? We have as many excuses for why we don’t follow God’s commands for living as a friend of mine has tennis shoes! My favorite excuse used by so many (including myself at times): “I would do that, but it’s just not my calling.”
Did you know that sharing the Gospel isn’t a calling? No, it’s not a calling at all – it’s a command. Yet many walk through their daily lives disobeying the Great Commission of Christ to share the Gospel with “every creature” excusing themselves. It’s as if so many have the notion that sharing the news of how someone’s sin can be forgiven should be left up to the “professionals”, because they aren’t trained well enough.
Can you imagine me, as a child, telling my parents that I didn’t clean my room as they had asked me to because “it wasn’t my calling” or because “they, being professionals at cleaning rooms, knew more about it than I did, a novice”? I would have very quickly been schooled in the difference of “calling” and “command,” and probably with the assistance of some “visual aids!”
Yet we pull the same stunt with God! We delay obedience to Him until we learn more or are “more sure of ourselves.” We excuse our lack of obedience away with every possibly excuse that comes to mind. All the while, God sees countless men, women, boys and girls dying separated from Him. Excuses don’t change that reality.
So this morning, what are you excusing away with the title of “calling?” What obedience are you delaying because you don’t feel “called” to it? I challenge you – get up, start obeying the commands of Christ for the life of every believer, and don’t miss any more opportunities to serve Him. He’s too worthy and deserving to have to leave a voicemail…



That’s just a thought, and I welcome yours.
Until next time,
blake

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