Mother Theresa and a Journey

So I have to ask myself the question...how many times have I said the following:

"What is God calling me to do?"

OR how many times have I said

"I'm just looking for my calling. I just want God's will in my life. I'm just waiting to do what God wants me to do, whenever that is"

I said these things ALL the time. I thought they were the right things to be believing...but then something happened that changed my opinion.

I heard a speaker in a class give a talk, and he was referencing an interview a reporter had with Mother Theresa. He asked her the following question:

"So when did you know you were called to feed the poor and serve here in Calcutta?"

Her reply is unbelievably insightful:

"I wasn't. I was following Jesus Christ, and this is where He led me."

How amazing is that. Let's unpack that a bit.

This completely flipped my outlook on God's calling in our lives right away. Was I doing the wrong thing? I kept thinking there was this lighta at the end of the road I was heading to, that when I got there, I would be in the center of the heart of God, and I would then be able to know what my calling was, and I'd embrace it with open arms. Everything I was doing in the mean time was to prepare me for that destination...as if that destination was all that really mattered.

I really wanted to do God's will. I thought this is what God wanted. And it is, of course...but God's purposes are going to get accomplished no matter what. It's a fact. But that doesn't mean that God's will is always done. We don't do God's will all the time. God doesn't want people to suffer...to die...to sin. These are results of God's will NOT being done. Everytime we sin we are disobeying God's will...and it just reminds the world that evil is always present.

So bringing us back to the Mother Theresa comment. What can we do then? If we aren't truly "called" to do things? What if we never have that 'dream' or that 'vision' that tells us what God wants us to do? Simple. Ask ourselves the question: "What can I do right now to please God?"

Follow Jesus Christ.

That's what mother Theresa. God's will for our lives is to follow His son. So right now, the only thing we can to and be sure it is God's will is to follow Jesus Christ. Don't worry abo[ut finding a calling...worrying about making money...getting married...Do we not trust God to take care of these things? We are to focus on this one thing. Follow Jesus Christ...are we not confident that if we do this He will lead us to where we want to go?

I was reminded when hearing this story: Faith is not a destination, it is a journey. So let us follow someone that knows the best journey for us to take - and be able to say the same thing Mother Theresa said.

"I wasn't[called to serve the poor in Calcutta]. I followed Jesus Christ and this is where He led me."

This was the paper i turned in reflecting on the first 5 weeks of the "Perspectives" class I'm taking.

Check it out if you'd like

www.perspectives.org

There are SO many different things I could write here! The first and foremost thing I took from week 1 was the importance of glorifying God. Too many times we take the Bible as being about us, and what God can do for us, and what we can do to glorify Him. But I don’t know if I could have answered this question correctly prior to week 1. God Gets most pleasure out of us when we glorify Him – Scripturally this is unarguably true, and we can glorify him by glorifying his name, and making all aware of His name and His love. That is what God wants more than anything.
Another discovery, which now seems ridiculously obvious, is the importance that God’s name be preached to all the nations as a necessity, and not necessarily as something we should do. Countless numbers of scripture verses have been brought to our attention supporting this. Not only SHOULD we do this as the body of Christ, but we MUST do this. Basically, according to scripture, the awakening for me was the cause-effect relationship of this. Matthew 24:14 Unarguable supports this when it says, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” This WILL happen for the end to come. Amazing. God is going to accomplish His purposes…so we should do all in our power to be a part of them. No matter how hard people try NOT to help God or evil tries to stop Him, He cannot be stopped.
The speakers were unbelievable as well. It is SO tough to soak in all the information every speaker says every week, but I can honestly say every week I walk out of class with some sort of theme I take out of every speaker that sticks with me. During week one, I became convinced that we are really on Earth to do one thing – Glorify God. I then also became convinced the best way to do this is to witness…and I am using this word with (2) definitions. First, to proclaim our allegiance to Christ in public and in the way we live, as the disciples did. Next, to tell all we can about the importance and glory that comes along with believing in Christ. In a later week I discovered this as only half the battle in evangelization…it is also important to help those we share with in learning how to follow God, which is what happens after we commit our lives to Him.
In Week 2, Dr Robertson gave his “Cat and Dog Theology” Lesson…and I have to admit, I was immediately skeptical by the name; however, I was immediately impressed once he got into his main points, and I began to really get excited about the entirety of the class as a direct result of this. The main point I took from this was to focus on what JFK used to say about our country – not what it(HE) can do for us, but what we can do for it(GOD). What does God want from me? What does God get from me? Why does God love me? What can I do for Him? These were among the questions I began asking myself immediately…and I immediately saw a shift in my direction in prayer and my approach toward missions. And as an add-on to that…when we truly accept grace, when I realize that Christ is truly in me, I don’t just say “I get God,” it also becomes, “God gets me.”

The fifth week saw Russ Munion give his portrayal of the first (3) missionaries. The thing that strut me right away about the first one, William Carey, is that he was in India for SEVEN years before he had his first convert. I know very few people, if any, have that kind of patience. Did he go about his missions in the right way? No, not at all. Of course not. Why? Because nobody had ever done it before! His courage and faith had to be UNIMAGINABLE to do what he did – to TRULY take a leap…and take his wife, his kids, in the the belly of the beast. God praise Him for his work, and praise God for allowing people to love him THAT much. I pray I can have a fraction of his faith and patience in the Lord. These three men among others laid blueprints for us to follow, and allow us to learn from their mistakes, be inspired by their leaps of faith, and learn from their successes as well.
LOVE the class –wake up every Tuesday morning not being able to wait for the night!