The Call

The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you.

In Genesis 12:1-9, we read the story of God calling Abram to leave his home and go to a new place that God will show him. In response, Abram gathers his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and everyone that has become a part of his household, and heads out for this new place God has promised to show him. Abram didn’t turn from God’s call or try to run away from it. He answered the call by simply trusting God.

When I was sixteen, I felt God calling me into full-time pastoral ministry. To answer that call, when I was twenty years old I started serving as a youth director in various churches. And I loved being a youth minister. On more than one occasion both my mom and my grandfather—also a UMC pastor—would tell me that there were churches in the Northwest Texas Conference that were in need of pastors; that perhaps I should take that step toward becoming a pastor for one of these churches. But I realized I wasn’t ready to take on the responsibility of serving as a pastor at twenty-five. And I would tell Mom that what I was doing was just as important, just as legitimate, as being a pastor, and this was the ministry that God had called me to do. So, I continued doing youth ministry for nearly 20 years. Finally, in 2012, I knew it was time to make a transition into pastoral ministry. So, I contacted a District Superintendent that I knew in the Northwest Texas Conference and put my name in. I was certified, licensed, and appointed to my first church by July 1, 2013.

I thought for years that I had answered God’s call, that I had run toward the ministry instead of away from it.  It wasn’t until later that I realized I had my own version of running from God’s call. It wasn’t that I avoided going into ministry, but that I had allowed my own comfort with being in youth ministry be my reason for not moving forward into being a pastor—like I felt God had called me to be. I realized that by staying where I was comfortable I wasn’t being completely faithful to God’s call.

Sometimes running from God’s call looks like staying in our comfort zone rather than taking the step God is calling us to take. Other times maybe it is the feeling that we can’t do whatever it is perfectly. But God isn’t asking for perfection, God is asking for our faith, for our trust, for our obedience. That was what Abram chose to do. He wasn’t perfect and he didn’t do everything perfectly, but he stepped out of his comfort zone to answer God’s call. I have yet to feellike I have had a “perfect” day of ministry. But God still calls me to be faithful by God’s grace. That is what God desires from us: faithful obedience to answering the call while trusting in God’s grace.

God isn’t calling everyone to preach or be in full-time pastor or a missionary. God is however calling each of us to live lives of faith, trust, and obedience to Him. So, my encouragement for all of us is not to worry about perfection in answering God’s call, but to strive to be faithful in answering. Until next time…

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Blake