Your Unique Call
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Hebrews 13:1-6
1. Let brotherly love continue. 2. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you also are in the body. 4. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and adulterous. 5. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never fail you nor forsake you." 6. Hence we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid; what can man do to me?"
I’m one of those people who concern “practical, sensible” people! I take these words rather literally, and some think it’s risky! My kids will tell you I’ve never met a stranger who I didn’t learn something about -- either how their day was going, some concern in the life, some recent joy they have experienced. I’ve even been known to stop and talk with homeless people on the street corners! The kids used to be so embarrassed! But they eventually got used to it and accept it now as “who I am.” My daughter has even acknowledged that she now thinks it’s a nice quality. And I’ll be going with a friend and her church group to visit a prison for a bible study at the end of the month -- just to see if I’m correctly hearing a call God has placed in my heart. (Dad, don’t read that last sentence!) My children will additionally tell you, that to their utter bewilderment and aggravation, I have no love of money at all! I don’t like it. I don’t like how people act about it and because of it or the lack thereof. I also have not been adulterous!
But I’m not sharing all these "wonderful" things about myself to direct you to look to me as an example or role model! I fall short in every way, every day, of what Christ tells us all we should be. You see, none of these things make me a good Christian. Nothing I do or say can earn me salvation. I’m just being who God made me to be. I don’t always get it right - more often than not I don’t! In these few areas I may be “above average” but in so many others I fall so very short! That’s why we must not judge others. That’s why we must constantly go to God and look to the bible for guidance and direction.
The Lord is my helper. He picks me up every time I fall. He redirects me when I go off on a tangent! He reassures me that even if I am scorned, reviled, persecuted in some way, it doesn’t matter! Because I have Jesus as my Savior! That’s the message to the Hebrews and it is a timeless one, because the world today holds plenty of opportunities for us to be the “different one” when we live by our faith and live out our faith. The world lives counter to the way Christ lived. It operates in a different realm than Christians strive for. We must ever seek out Christ - and that is how we know we can endure anything man does to us or says about us.
And let’s be careful not to look at someone and think we’re better Christians than they seem to be. Or that they’re better Christians than we know we are! All of us need to encourage and lift each other up. We need to “be Christ” to those in our lives-our families, our friends, our coworkers, as well as the stranger and the prisoner, and the cashier in Wal-Mart and the guy who gets our order wrong at the drive-thru. And we need to not beat ourselves up for falling so short of who and what we strive to be. Jesus already took care of that too! At least I
hope that trying with a right heart is the true requirement of living forever in heaven! Otherwise there really is no hope!
My prayer today is that you live out your call as a Christian in ways that are “uniquely you.” And that you remember that since the Lord is your Helper, you do not need to fear what man can do to you.
Mary
