Considerations

“… For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness… Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.“ 
(Acts 26:16-18)

Blinding light. A booming voice. This is how Saul began his transformation into the apostle Paul who would later go on to write a number of the epistles (letters) in the New Testament of the Bible. Saul, on his way to further persecute more Christians, met Jesus on the road to Damascus and life was never the same for him after that encounter (See Acts 9 for the entire conversion story). It was here in this spectacular form of intervention that Jesus revealed to Paul what he was called to do and from that point on, Paul’s life and his choices were centered around this calling.

Do you know what God has called you to? 

And is your life centered around that calling?

I’m not sure how many of us can boast of such an experience as Paul’s in regards to discovering their calling. But if we look closely at the calling on Paul’s life mentioned in Acts 26, we would see that his calling is really no different than the calling God has given to each one of us who identify as His children through the saving blood of Jesus Christ. Wherever God calls us to go, whatever gift He calls us to use, part of that call is to help others “open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God… receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people…”(Acts 26:18). 

Living Out This Calling

So how do we go about living out this calling God has placed on us? How do we help eyes to be opened and lives turn from Satan’s darkness to God’s light? Not everyone will be called to foreign mission fields but everyone has a mission field to live out their calling. Some of us will be sent from our homes, families and comfort to go to far lands to share the Gospel. Others of us will be sent to share with those who are in closer proximity to us such as our families, our neighbors, our colleagues and others in our daily lives. 

Perhaps you are a bus or taxi driver with the opportunity to share the Good News with your passengers. Or maybe you are a waitress whose smile and kindness shines forth the light of Christ to your customers. You might be a businessperson who has chosen to conduct themselves in a godly fashion contrary to your colleagues, causing others to question why you are the way you are. You might be that teacher whose gentle and gracious manner softens the hearts of their students and enables them to hear the life changing message that God loves them when it seems like no one else does. Wherever God has placed you and whatever role you are in, the calling remains: “to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God… receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people…” (Acts 26:18).

Centering Our Lives Around the Calling

It’s one thing to receive your calling. However it’s another thing to center one’s life around the calling. As the Olympics draw near, there are over 10,000 athletes preparing themselves for their time on the world stage. For each athlete, life for the next month will revolve around being ready for the games. Other things will take a back seat including jobs, social lives and even time with family. Why? Because life needs to be centered around prepping for the games with no distractions. That means making tough choices about persons and things including those that are dear to the athletes. 

Paul made some tough choices in order to go forward in the calling on his life. Remember he was on the opposing team first. He had to turn his back on those whom he stood next to in the quest to eradicate Christians including the spiritual leaders in his home town and maybe even some family members. He gave up a prominent life that would have been very comfortable and profitable, all because he was centered on the new calling on his life.

Recently I heard how the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson had been approached by others to get into the secular music industry after becoming successful in the gospel music industry. On her Wikipedia page, the following is stated about Mahalia Jackson:

The granddaughter of enslaved people, Jackson was born and raised in poverty in New Orleans. She found a home in her church, leading to a lifelong dedication and singular purpose to deliver God’s word through song.¹

On that same Wikipedia page it also describes ‘the intense pressure Ms. Jackson encountered to record secular music’ and how she ‘turned down high paying opportunities to focus on gospel music.’ The promise of fame and money can be a catalyst to distract one from God’s calling. But in the case of Ms. Jackson, it seems that her decision to dedicate her life to sharing the Gospel through song became the filter she used to determine her life choices. Fame and making money was not the determining factor. It was as if she kept this question close to her: ‘Will this help me live out my calling of delivering God’s word through song?’ 

And so her life, centered around that calling, looked like saying no to offers to sing other types of music. It looked like rejecting large amounts of money. It included disappointing others who had dreams of making Mahalia Jackson a star in the secular music industry. It meant saying no to a lot of things that looked good but would keep her from fully living that call God had for her. Imagine the number of people who would have missed the opportunity “to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God… receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people…” if Ms. Jackson decided to not center her life around her calling.

What About Us?

Do we know what God has called each of us to? And once we are aware of God’s calling, what choices will we make to center our lives around it? Are we ready to make hard decisions that will protect God’s call on our lives? Are we willing to ask the question, ‘will this help me live out my calling’, to help us say no to those things that will distract us and yes to those things that support the call? Are we prepared to disappoint others including ourselves? Do we understand the repercussions when we choose not to center our lives around what God has called us to? That is the loss of opportunities for us to help others “to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God… receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people…” (Acts 26:18).

And it’s here through the lens of verse 18, we can see that obedience to God’s calling is truly a matter of life and death for us and those in the mission field God calls us to go to.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahalia_Jackson ↩︎