Month: February 2018

I have been the recipient of God’s amazing, overwhelming grace. How that has happened in my life is summed up in an often-told story.

A northern pastor stopped in for breakfast at a Waffle House in the south. His order of eggs, bacon, toast, and juice arrived with one addition. There was a white mass on his plate. He called the waitress over to his table. “Excuse me, ma’am, but what is this?” “Those are grits,” the waitress responded. Puzzled, the pastor responded, “I didn’t order these.” Her reply, “Oh, you don’t order grits. They just come”.

Grace is at work in me. I have never “ordered” grace. It has “just come,” over and over again.  God has poured out on me in abundance the measure of this blessing I did not deserve. He was looking to make me his adopted son before I even realized He was there. He transformed my selfishness into love and compassion for others. He brought friends into my life that I didn’t realize I needed. He gave me a loving family before I realized I needed to belong somewhere. God gave me purpose in my life so that I would be firmly anchored when the voices of discouragement tried to cast me adrift. All this and so much more God gave me by grace so that He might somehow be glorified through me.

I must accept Grace. This blessing I did not deserve is mine to receive. I must rejoice in it and seek to understand all that God has done through it in my life. I have to move past the root of pride and control that desires to earn everything I have. Grace cannot be earned; I have to learn to grasp and accept it. If I don’t I will never realize how great a gift Grace truly is. Without some understanding of Grace I will never have compassion for a fellow Christian trapped in sin. I will not begin to comprehend the plight of people are that are oblivious to God. I will never understand how lost they are unless I understand how far I was from God and how close He has brought me to Himself. I have to continue to wrestle with the idea of grace or I will not understand the nature of God and how much He humbled himself to come to this place and look for me. I can only understand the freedom that comes by grace when I truly understand how imprisoned those are that don’t have it.

There were times when I didn’t believe it was real. I rejected Grace and handicapped my faith. I acknowledged God’s presence but removed the path to draw near to Him. The pain of being so distant from my Heavenly Father made me desperate. I have stopped asking the question why God gave it to me and have accepted that is was His pleasure to give it. I accepted Grace.

Most people perceive a calling to be a special, spiritually ordained devotion to a profession, role, or project. People may feel called to be a pastor, mother, teacher, or to business. Some are called to eliminate poverty or injustice.

My calling from God is much more focused on a way of life and less on my occupation. In my adult life I have served God as a houseparent, a human resource director, a repairer and seller of kitchen cabinets, a school administrator, and now as the leader of a guest services team at a retreat and conference center (my career path has confused many of my friends and family members). In all these long and short term career positions I have continued to fulfill my calling. I am called to inspire others.

I realized this calling four or five years ago. Although I was not always aware of my calling I realized I had been fulfilling it regularly for much of my adult life. Inspiring people seems to take on many forms. I try to encourage people to live a more sincere and devoted Christian life. Other times I help point out others gifts and abilities, or simply listen to the people in which I come into contact. Hopefully I love others in such a way that they know that they have value and purpose.

People would assume that long before your fifties you would have figured out the calling God has put in your heart. I may be a bit late to the game. However, I am grateful to have discovered it later in my life. If I knew this as a younger man I am afraid I would not have had the maturity, humility, and spiritual sensitivity to allow God to make my calling what He wanted it to be.

This blog, I believe, is rooted in my calling to inspire. I certainly hope as you read about my spiritual journey you will be encouraged in your own Christian journey and realize God has a calling in your life, too.