Moving into a new year is as simple as passing from one day to the next but considering the passing of time and making adjustments to maximize the time that is left is another matter.
With the new year should come new activities that challenge and stretch us. For me ... I think I'll dive into the world of blogging. We'll see how this goes.
Sometimes I forget but I never get over the fact that I have the power to change people’s lives; for the better or the worse. It scares me a little. This power does not innately originate with me but it emanates from the things that God has breathed and spoken into me: things that he’s invested in me, in us.
This power to change lives is only applied through some investment on my part and some commitment on the part of the other person. We call it “discipleship”: the making and growing of disciples of Jesus. I sometimes think of it in other terms, i.e. coaching, speaking into, leadership development, etc., but it’s really just brown bag discipleship.
The thing we must understand is that this is a spiritual exercise. If we want spiritual results then we have to sow spiritual seed. We can reason in our own temporal understanding and think up things that will help people, maybe even change them, but for eternal God-results I have to walk in God’s anointing and in spiritual revelation.
John the Beloved Disciple, in 1 John 2:24-27, writes this, “Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”
What, then, is my vocation; what is my calling? It is to be immovable in my reliance upon and my obedience to the Word of God. It is to focus upon the eternal and not the temporal. It is to abide in intimacy with God so I can hear his heart beat and communicate it to those who are hungry to hear it too.
I am deeply impacted by these words of Henri Nouwen from the prologue of The Return of the Prodigal Son:
“I have to kneel before the Father, put my ear against his chest and listen, without interruption, to the heartbeat of God. Then, and only then, can I say carefully and very gently what I hear. I know now that I have to speak from eternity into time, from the lasting joy into the passing realities of our short existence in this world, from the house of love into the houses of fear, from God’s abode into the dwellings of human beings. I am well aware of the enormity of this vocation. Still, I am confident that it is the only way for me. One could call it the “prophetic” vision: looking at people and this world through the eyes of God.”
This is what I want to do and this is how I can really bring about godly change in people’s lives. This is how I must grow disciples and live with an eternal perspective: I must abide in Christ and be positioned to put my ear against God’s chest, hear his heartbeat, and simply communicate what I hear. For me…that pretty much sums up my calling.
