Abraham Piper writes:
What’s the difference between a calling and a plain old job you’re obeying God in?
God wants policemen and preachers, mechanics and missionaries.
Nevertheless, one category seems like ordinary work, while the other is a calling.
Why?
With our categorical and analytical approach to life and faith, is it possible that we have maybe misunderstood some things about the Bible and God? Modern thinking neatly arranges large events into measurable and defineable slots. Even in our understanding of salvation, we say that there is a point of new birth in a person’s life. At that moment they realize their need for their sin to be forgiven, their separation from God, their need for a Savior, and are born-again. We tell them to then embark on a pursuit of following Christ and hopefully discover His will for their lives. For some this happens in a moving church service, camp experience, or conference. The light comes on, the call becomes clear, and off they go to the mission field, pastor a church, or work in a Christian camp. For others, they wait not knowing if and when the call will ever come. We separate salvation from calling.
What if we’ve missed something? As I look through the men and women in the Scriptures who were called by God, I find that there is not this modern thinking of separation in salvation and calling. In fact what you find instead is the two events meshed into one grand God-experience. Their calling to come to God was intimately woven with their call to a God-purpose in their life.
Their first encounter with God was a grand call to turn to Him and serve Him. Their relationship with God was inseparable from His purpose for their life. Can you imagine the power of having an undeniable calling to come to Christ and life purpose meshed together? Can you imagine the added motivation; sense of purpose and destiny; wonder and awe; dependence and trust; confidence and passion?
Can we maybe understand why there are so many today who live passionless spiritual lives? Their walk with Christ is a Sunday-only experience devoid of practical purpose in their marriage, family, relationships, work, and life. They walk in confusion and guilt over not knowing how to mesh the two. They easily get caught in traps of temptation and sin because there’s no greater reason not to.
What if this event we call salvation is a single event that encompasses so much more? What if it is a simultaneous event just as the Scriptures describe it:
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Romans 8:29-30
What if we really were redeemed for a reason bigger than just to attend church, something wilder than just sunday spirituality, something grander than just our own life?
It appears we have missed it.
