The Calling to be all that you can be

Ephesians 4:1-16

             A very popular question you might hear is "what's your sign?" Many people give credence to astrology and the role it may play in our lives. I don't have an opinion either way except to say that perhaps God has many ways in revealing himself to us. But the question itself  calls to mind a broader question that's mentioned in this passage, lead a life worthy of the calling. 

               What is our calling? You've certainly heard the expression "he or she received the calling".  I have always been of the belief that it referred to a person being called by God to ministry. I had broadened my definition a bit when I saw how physicians and nurses worked. They work hard and long hours not dictated by a clock but dictated by a higher, broader responsibility. I believe being a physician or nurse is something more than a job then, it's a calling.

                Where does that leave the rest of us? After some thought I realize we are all called.  While we may not be called to ministry and we may not be called to serve others in medicine we are none the less all called. What are we called to?

                 That is the BIG question now isn't it.  First, being called presumes you are listening. Putting that aside for a minute, we are called by virtue of our creation. God created each and every one of us as a unique, highly loved and cherished being. Those things that make us special and unique, the fact that we are children of God, calls us to be all that we were created to be. We are called to offer all that we are to all of our brothers in sisters in the best way we can. Basically, be all that you can be, all that you were meant to be. After that, listening is key.

                I have come to great deal of self knowledge in my life. In my search for who I am, I did a great deal of listening. One of the biggest chunks of self knowledge about myself is that I am gay. I didn't come to that realization until I was about 50 years old. It is integral to who I am and how I love and serve God. But before I came to that epiphany, I was still a loved, created being of God trying to be the best I could be, listening for God's 'calling'.  This kind of listening led me to such wonderful experiences as running soup suppers, volunteering to serve food on Thanksgiving day, being involved with small Christian communities, volunteering in the Dominican Republic and hammering nails for habitat for humanity with my church.  I would  consider of all of these 'callings'. 

                 So, although my definition of 'the calling' has vastly expanded over the years, the one most important calling is the one to be whom God created  you to be. To be all you can be, all that you are.

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said,

‘When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;

   he gave gifts to his people.’ 

(When it says, ‘He ascended’, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.