Read: Isaiah 48:12-50:11, Ephesians 4:17-32, Psalm 69:1-18, Proverbs 24:5-6

I have said it: I am calling Cyrus! I will send him on this errand and will help him succeed. (Isaiah 48:15)

Relate: I’ve never had one of those Macedonian calls. I’ve never had a dream, like Paul did, where someone is telling me to come and preach to him. It has never been that crystal clear. But there have been moments when I knew I was in my zone. I knew that this was exactly what Jesus was calling me to do. Most recently it was launch Sunday here at Two Rivers. Worship had just begun and I was still helping with the more and more difficult task of helping another of the 303 people who came find a seat in the 286 seat theater.

Both the other two that quickly come to mind happened shortly after failure. One was sitting on the steps at SUNY Binghamton shortly after the traditional room reservation all nighter. Before everything was done online, campus groups would camp out all night outside the Student Activities office making a line to reserve the room and time they want to have for their group the following year. It ended up turning into a multicultural party and a chance for fellowship with many people who would never step foot in one of the Christian groups I worked with. This was less then a month after I had been kicked out as a youth pastor at a church in Long Island and God gave me a much needed confirmation that He was still in control and I was exactly where He wanted me to be. I had failed but He never would.

The other time was when I first put pen to paper in what would become the first of my old myspace blogs. Perhaps a week before I’d asked a girl out on a date. She smiled and thanked me and then told me she felt God calling her to be single at this time of her life. A few days later I found out she just started dating someone else. Apparently that was a very short “time of her life”. In frustration I went out for a walk where I was questioning me, my purpose, God, the world, and pretty much anything and everything else. I decided on that walk to get back home and start writing out my questions and doubts. After a couple stops and restarts, I finally ended up writing Who Am I (A postmodern look at existentialism). Looking back at it now, I think it is quite pompous and ungainly but it was a big enough hit at the time that it stirred something in me. I fell in love with writing and I firmly believed it was something God was calling me to do.

React: What is your calling? For me, God’s calling has always been more of a confirmation that what I am doing for Him is right. Cyrus was called by God and he never really knew it. He just did what he felt was right and that was exactly what God wanted him to be doing. Paul was given his life’s calling pretty much at the moment of conversion. But even for him, he was already doing what he thought God wanted and His Damascus road experience was really a course correction.

So what do you love? What are you good at? What brings you that special fulfillment? How can you use those passions and talents for God’s purposes? If it is not what God wants us doing, He will let us know. But if we never start doing something then we will probably never be called and will never find that fulfillment that comes from being in the center of His will.

Respond: 

God, thank You for those times when You have let me know that I am right where You have called me to be. I am thankful for those ways You have let me know that I am loved, that I have a purpose and that You are leading me. Help me to continue to step out and go where You are gently nudging (or violently knocking). No matter where I am, no matter what I do, no matter where I go, I want to always be in the center of Your will. Please continue to keep guiding me there.