Therefore,
brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do
this you will never fall; 11 so there will be richly provided
for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ~ 2nd Peter 1:10-11
It occurred to me recently that modern humans worry about an
awful lot of stuff that my great-Grandparents would have viewed as trivial and
even a little strange.
I suspect that women in my great-Grandmother’s day were far
too occupied with issues related to food, clothing and disease to fixate on
potty training their infants or agonize over finding a stimulating preschool
environment for their toddlers. They didn’t concern themselves with being the
“crafty” Mom, nor did they obsess over how to stay sexy into middle age.
No one gave any thought to the notion of “going vegan” or to
the health consequences of excessive gluten. They didn’t expend a lot of energy
worrying about what they would do during their retirement years. They were just
content to live to their retirement years.
Modern Christians have our own fair share of novel worries. I
doubt our spiritual predecessors gave much thought to finding Churches with cutting-edge
kid’s and youth programs. They didn’t worry about whether or not they were “getting fed spiritually.” Previous
generations of believers were not consumed with finding their “calling,” nor
did they spend a lot of time obsessing about whether or not they were doing “what
God made them to do.”
A longing to discover our spiritual calling and be in the
center of God’s will is without question a good and healthy desire. But like
most of our modern spiritual concerns, this one reveals some misdirected
priorities.
Parents should be concerned about their kid’s spiritual
growth and development, but what kids really need is to witness their parents
attending and supporting their local Church. Kids need Moms and Dads who will
faithfully teach them about God and right from wrong much more than they need
just the “right” program.
Getting fed spiritually is a well-intentioned ambition. Acquiring
the knowledge to feed ourselves is a better ambition. It frees us from the
bondage of church-hopping and Bible study bouncing in a never-ending quest for
spiritual food. Learning to provide our own spiritual food also enables
Christians to teach and serve in local congregations, rather than continuously
searching for new and novel places to be served and taught.
I simply cannot find a New Testament passage that clearly
instructs Christians to search out their individual calling in Christ. I have
found several passages that tell us exactly what believers are called to be.
Christians are called by God to be:
In fellowship with Jesus~ 1st Corinthians 1:9
Holy~ 2nd Timothy 1:9
Living in unity with other Christians~ Colossians 3:15,
Ephesians 4:4
Encouragers~ Hebrews 3:13
Enduring suffering for doing good~ 1st Peter
2:20-22
Followers of truth~ 2nd Thessalonians 2:13-15
Servants~ Galatians 5:13
Kind~ Ephesians 4:31
Living in peace with people~ 1st Corinthians 7:15
Pure~ Philippians 2:14-16
Continually declaring the goodness of God~ 1st
Peter 2:9
For decades well-meaning church leaders have taught that we
should attempt to do great things for God. We were told that if we discovered
our calling, determined our gifting and got busy, we would accomplish great
things for the Kingdom of God. Any and all discussion of altering lifestyle
choices, sanctification or doctrinal instruction was casually dismissed as
needless and archaic legalism.
This well-intended instruction has led to some unintended and
peculiar consequences. The body of Christ is inundated with oodles of
Christians who are eager to build the Kingdom but are lacking the character,
wisdom and knowledge necessary to resist sin, defend their faith, make lasting
disciples and remain faithful to Christ. We have missed the mark because we
have forgotten that God cares more about who we become and how we behave than what
we accomplish.
God wants men and women to be shaped into the image of Jesus
Christ (Romans 8:29). It’s all we need to work on any thing else is
superfluous. Our ambition in this life
should be to take on the characteristics of Jesus as we grow in our knowledge
of Him. If we seek to meet this goal we might just start building the Kingdom
and accomplishing great things for God.