Tonight’s the first mid-term exam for VLI. Needless to say, I am stressed. I’ve not had an exam for 11 years!
It’s the wierdest thing: I know that on the intensive we covered stuff about the Gospel of Luke, yet I dont have any recollection of it, nor do I have any notes! I slide through Matthew, Mark and on into the Kingdom of God. Wierdness. I know that my fellow students would never have let me sleep, so I can only assume that I zoned out for a moment or two … or lots.
I am always deeply challenged when I get to spend time with people who know their calling in life. Lu is one such person - called to mercy ministry, moving in it and just seems to have things all together. The current evangelism mentoring (for her) seems to be a walk in the park, since that’s what she is doing anyhow. A group of us met to plan and brainstorm about mercy ministries within our church and Lu was there to help us out and I ended up feeling about ---> this big. It’s how I felt when a friend of mine was talking about her call as a missionary - to go to the country of Yemen. In her case she knew it before college, went to study the Arabic language and culture, then on out to work her call.
My “call” is nothing so specific. I dont close my eyes at night and have the after-images of a particular people group burned on my retina. I fall into an entire class of people that has a deep sense of call without any real sense of specificity. Ephesians 4:7-13 says (with my emphasis added)
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:
”When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men.”
(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Being around these people moving in their call really feels like hanging out with a chef, when all I do is to cook myself a meal, like being with an evangelist when all I do is to witness, or being an amateur sportsman hanging around with a professional, from a national team.
