Being Called

This Sunday we continued a sermon series entitled "Identity Matters" at EBC, based on the book of Galatians.  The following is some of the main ideas from the second message: "Being Called."

It’s that time of year for me.  The driver’s license I’ve had since I was in my early 20’s expires in September.  Don’t you love going to the DPS?  Who doesn't look forward to standing in lines, filling out forms, and taking that picture that never quite seems to turn out the way you want?  You would think that with today’s digital technology you would get a couple of different shots to choose from; but that would only prolong the line and make the clerk even grumpier. 

At any rate, it is amazing how much of your identity is wrapped up in this little card.  It gives your full name and lists your address, height, sex, eye color, date of birth, and any driving restrictions you might have.  In my case: “with corrective lenses.”   

I’ll never forget the first time I pressed my forehead up against one of those vision-testing machines.  I had no idea what was in front of me.  “Read the smallest line you can see,” the clerk said in her dry, stale voice.  “Um…what am I supposed to be looking at?” I asked in all seriousness.  “You tell me,” she said, a little perturbed at my confusion.  “All I see is a bunch of blurriness and a bright light in my face,” I told her.  “Do you wear glasses,” she asked.  “No.”  “Do you want to drive?”  “Yes.”  “Then you need to get some glasses.”   

Ever since that experience I get a little nervous whenever I step up to one of those machines.  Thankfully, I’ve never failed the test since.  As long as I wear my glasses, I’m able to pass the test and renew this important license that documents so much of my identity.   

Consider the occasions you are asked to present it: at the bank, airport, or when your pulled over by a police officer; you need one to get a passport, and are hard-pressed to fill out any kind of application that does not ask for the driver’s license number that is listed at the top.  Take a look at your driver's license, and you can tell most of the things that our state, country, and businesses believe are important about you  Yet, when it comes to your identity as a child of God, this does not even come close.  You are more than a set of statistics and a bad picture.  If you have surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you are “called” by him.

We do not talk about this aspect of our identity near enough in church.  The only people most church-goers hear talk about “calling” are ministers, as if God sends them special emails or text messages telling them that he wants them to work for the church.   

When I was working as a youth intern for my home church and believed I sensed God calling me to be a pastor, I was introduced to another minister in our area as “a young person called to the pastorate.”  “Oh wonderful," he gushed.  "Where were you when you received your call?” he asked me.  “I don’t know…I receive calls all the time but I’m not always available to answer the phone,” I told him.  He was not very impressed with my irreverent humor.   

I was not trying to be smart-mouthed, but I simply could not pin-point a moment in time where God dropped a neon sign in my lap telling me to be a pastor.  To be honest, I don’t think that is how “calling” works for most people.  And when pastors dress the idea up and make it sound like it happens as a dramatic, isolated event while they are walking down the road minding their own business – it ticks me off.  Purposefully or not, they are promoting a false, or at least, an uncommon understanding of what it means to be “called by God.”

In The Call, Os Guinness says that “you will not find a 'one-page executive summary,' a 'how-to-manual,' a 'twelve-step program,' or a ready-made 'game plan' for figuring out the rest of your life.”

 

 That is not what being called by God is about.  It is also not only about being a “professional minister.”  It is about following Jesus in the unique way he has created you to, in the current context in which you find yourself.

Not even the apostle Paul, who perhaps had one of the most dramatic experiences with Jesus recorded in all of Scripture, had a calling that he instantly understood during a single moment in time, or one that remained the exact same throughout his life. He declares to the Galatians that following his dramatic conversion: "my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus" (Gal. 1:16b-17). In other words, he took some time to figure out what this experience meant.

Seeing yourself as called is an essential part of your identity as a believer.  I believe it is what is missing in many of our churches.  It is the reason people can go to church once a month, or sporadically – when they feel like it, and live lives that seem to be disconnected to their faith.  It is the reason that people hop from church to church, depending on what each one is “offering.”  And let’s face it, as a church, we’ve encouraged this kind of behavior.  Instead of teaching people to find their calling as Christians and to live it out in our midst, we’ve taught them to be consumers.  And then we wonder why people eventually leave and say they aren’t “getting anything” out of church.  Well, it’s because no one has taught them that going to church is more than just about getting something.  No one has told them that they have a divine calling on their life, just like the preacher, that can bring them more joy and fulfillment than the best program we could whip up if money was not an object.

Today, start seeing yourself as “called.” What is God using to influence your calling today? And how will you answer it?