your calling, not theirs. (trusting God + our callings PART 2)
Earlier this week I posted in part 1 of this series how we were (supposedly) going to destroy our family as we responded to God's calling upon our lives.
We talked about what to do when no one supports your calling.
And I left you with this reminder...
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So lets continue on with it, shall we??
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Isn’t it amazing how we all have such different passions and are called for such different things?
A good friend of mine works in television. Even when we were growing up, you could tell she was made for it.
Though she gets to meet and interview incredible people and dress for red carpet upon red carpet, I have absolutely no desire to make my living doing what she does. But God has called her to it…given her an extreme passion for it and the ministry it’s provided for she and her family. He is using her in great ways. But I’m sure glad it’s her and not me.
It reminds me of the passage in 1 Corinthians that speaks of “One Body with Many Parts.”
You know the one. It says:
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Turn your Bible to 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 and read this well loved passage.
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Society may think my sweet friend Megan is a more impressive part of the body. Something more important. She’s on TV and meets with impactful and famous people every day.
We may feel unimportant as we settle into our cubicle each morning, at a job we’re not thrilled with.
Or perhaps we look at someone with a calling such as Megan’s, feeling a little green as we realize we’re wearing yoga pants…again…without any chance of actually making it to the gym. Maybe the grocery store, and most certainly to the closet which houses the broom and dust pan because for the twelfth time today, snacks have been spilled by chubby little hands still figuring out how to eat by themselves. Maybe we’ll even make it upstairs to the shower, if it’s a good day. A really good day. Maybe.
Rather than comparing ourselves to others, lets instead be challenged and encouraged by the words of Paul.
We are every bit as important to the Body of Christ as my sweet Megan, as Mother Teresa or Billy Graham, as our pastors and missionaries, and so many others we look up to.
There’s something about this quote that makes my throat tight and my heart ache:
Amen, Dr. King. Amen.
My Grandfather worked for Mothers Cookies for most of his adult life {which side note, was pretty much the coolest job a grandpa could have because he was always letting us jump up into his big truck and choose whatever package of cookies we wanted. The only thing better is if he owned a toy store, but I digress…}.
My Grandpa, who we all appropriately call “Cookie,” was like this street sweeper. Most people probably wouldn’t care much about a job as a cookie distributor.
But Grandpa Cookie did his job better than well. He did it with excellence. He did it with great pride.
He knew everyone who worked in each and every store and he knew their story. He KNEW them and joked with them and fellowshipped with them.
He shared life with them.
It wasn’t about the cookies he lined up so neatly upon the grocery store shelves. It was about the people.
He made a difference in the lives of so many. He has long since retired but even still, years later, when I last visited Seattle and swung by our neighborhood QFC grocery store, I was greeted with questions of how Cookie is doing. Stories would then be retold, which always seem to end in laughter when Cookie is involved, because Grandpa Cookie tells jokes and people love him.
He is a living Jesus to them. Warm hearted and caring.
Cookie and Megan and you and me, we’re different. I was called to adoption and to have a houseful of children and to write a book and blog.
You are likely called for something completely different. Something God has planned and is equally as important.
Don’t allow anyone to make you second-guess what you’re positive Christ has put on your heart.
Whether it’s something huge and daunting, something that’s a bit scary and seems bigger than you can actually accomplish…or something that others may think isn’t big enough!
Whether the Lord has called you to be the crossing guard at your kids school, work with the homeless or the infirm, start a Bible Study for college girls, or to use your entire inheritance to purchase an 800 year old building in Morocco to start a home for children whose mothers have been rescued from slavery {like my friend Laura}.
It’s all important. Why?
Because the Lord has asked you to do it.
And that's enough.
