AEH: Our Calling

I often hear people say they have been called to do this or that—called to be a writer, a teacher, a pastor, etc. And Scripture does say that some of us have been called to be pastors, teachers, administrators, and the like, but that passage is talking about how we have been gifted . . . and how we’re expected to use those gifts in the Body and for the kingdom.

When I was writing The Debt, I did a search of Scripture—was there anything else to which we are definitely called? And I found one main thing from which everything else stems—we are called to love and obey God. Period. That’s it. God doesn’t speak of calling anyone else to do anything else but obey. In the Scripture, He is constantly calling people to obey.

I’m serving God as a writer now, but I’m also serving him as a mother, a wife, a sometime columnist, a neighbor, a woman on the street. In the past I’ve served him as a singer, a student, a secretary, a teacher, and a cashier. Wherever you are in life, you are to love and obey God where you are. That’s your calling.

My calling—and yours—may change tomorrow. The woman who’s obeying God as a teacher today may obey him as a missionary tomorrow. The things we often think of as permanent “callings” are anything but permanent . . . IF we remain open to the will of God and are willing to obey him. He does not always lead down well-paved interstates. Sometimes he leads over twisty, circuitous paths. But always, he is leading.

Most people ask me if I’ve always wanted to be a writer. They expect to hear that I grew up writing, or that I was scribbling stories as a child. Well . . . no. I have always loved reading and I did try my hand at a short story when I was in about fifth grade. But I never felt especially good at writing, nor did I ever think I’d be doing anything with it.

One thing I did know—I had accepted Jesus Christ as my savior when I was six years old, so I knew my life belonged to him. I didn’t know how he would use it or where he would take me, but I knew I was His and that He had a plan for me. I also knew that God would tell me what he wanted me to do in three ways: through His Word, the Bible; through the leading of my parents and spiritual leaders, and through His voice.

My job is simply to obey.

When God was about to create man, says a Jewish legend, He took into His counsel the angels that stood about his throne. “Create him not,” said the angel of Justice, “for if you do he will commit all kinds of wickedness against his fellow men; he will be hard and cruel and dishonest and unrighteous.” “Create him not,” said the angel of Truth, “for he will be false and deceitful to his brother-man, and even to You.” “Create him not,” said the angel of Holiness, “he will follow that which is impure in your sight, and blaspheme you to your face.”

Then stepped forward the angel of Mercy and said: “Create him, our Heavenly Father, for when he sins and turns from the path of right and truth and holiness I will take him tenderly by the hand, and speak loving words to him, and then lead him back to You.”

Whether you are a speaker, a writer, a mom, a teacher, a father, or a carpenter, or a cashier, we are called to show God’s mercy to the world because first and foremost, we are called to love and obey God.

I pray we never forget that.


Angela Hunt can be found at www.angelahuntbooks.com .