“The Calling Of God.”
Some people call it, “your destiny.” Others say it is your “assignment.” I think it is simply “your dream, your calling.”
When God places His hand upon you for that “special calling,” it won’t always be easy. There will be many things that will get you “off focus.” Many times, discouragement will be coming along. Sometimes, you think things are going “from bad to worse,” but it’s all part of God’s plan to make you what He wants you to be…
Some people think that a “calling,” means, “being something,” and everyone will love you. But, we can tell you, everyone will “not” love you. Some people think that because “God has called you,” things will be easy. It wasn’t easy for Noah. For 120 years, while building that ark, day after day, year after year, he lost all respect. People made fun of him. Noah was not allowed to do anything “day after day,” but work on that big, giant thing, called an “ark!”
Joseph had a “dream,” that showed him about his future. When he told it to his brothers, they got jealous and threw him into a pit, to die! Moses was a great man, a man of God, a humble man… but God laid on his back, a “heavy calling.” He had to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, across desert land, where there were no stores to buy food, no water to drink, no map to follow, and no shopping centers to buy clothes. All he had was a million “murmuring, complaining, whining Israelites,” who always wanted to turn back!
Some are called to do something that no one else wants to do. We once preached in a particular church in California. The Pastor was a wonderful, anointed man of God. When we walked in the door, he said, “Let me introduce you to the people who are “called of God to clean the church!” As we walked down the aisle of the huge church, people were singing, dusting off the pews, sweeping and vacuuming, and cleaning the windows. As we walked to the pulpit area, one lady smiled, shook our hands, and said, “I’m called of God to shine the piano and the musical instruments, and clean everything on the platform!”
Your calling won’t be easy. You may have times of total discouragement… but you must keep on. There may be times when your heart is broken and you feel as though you cannot find all the pieces to put it back together, but you will… “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chose the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty.” I Corinthians 1:27
I can say that as a missionary, in the last three years, especially lately, through burning tires and roadblocks, through gangs with AK-47s and M-16’s, it hasn’t been easy. There have been many nights when I couldn’t sleep because I cried so much for the people and children of Haiti… the poor. Depression set in because I thought, “No one’s coming to help us. The U.S. Military is NOT coming to help.” And yet, here we are, in Haiti, still helping the poor, still delivering food, still running our Orphanage, and getting ready to deliver more tents, and help more earthquake victims. Even with all the problems and stress of Haiti, Bobby and I have found “our calling,” and we are exactly where we are supposed to be, and here is where our heart is. In the midst of everything, the “calling of God is the highest calling in the world!” We are humbled to be called of God, Sherry