The Upload
Posted on Apr 29, 2016 by
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
I can’t remember exactly where, but there is a phrase that I read once that has always stuck with me. In the article I was reading, the author made the comment that, “The Holy Spirit often leads us places we do not want to go.” At the time, I was bothered by the statement because I thought, well, if I don’t want to go or do whatever it is, it is probably because I don’t think I can handle it, or it might be a place I really wouldn’t like. So why would God want me to do something I wouldn't be good at or be in a place where I could not be happy? But over the years, I have come to realize that oftentimes life isn’t about me. Life, my life, is about how I might be a servant and disciple of Christ’s, and to do that, I often need to do things I am not comfortable doing, and oftentimes I have to go places I don’t want to go. If left alone, I would never do those things or go to those places, but the fact is, I am not alone in this world. No, God has made sure none of us are alone. As we will hear this week in our Gospel story (John 14:23-29), after Jesus’ death and resurrection, God sent us an “advocate” to walk alongside us. This Advocate, or more often we call this God’s Holy Spirit, walks with us, and guides us, and challenges us to use the gifts and talents God has given us for God’s glory, not ours.
My call story is a perfect example of this. When Jill first challenged me to see that I should go to seminary back in the summer of 1995, I thought she was crazy. I couldn’t go to seminary. I had a family. I had a career. I knew nothing about being a pastor, and besides, I didn’t want to go to seminary. But, for the next five years, with the Holy Spirit walking alongside me, I was nudged, prodded and pushed into seeing that God was calling me. Yes, oftentimes the Holy Spirit leads us places we don’t want to go. Heck, if we all did exactly as God intended all the time, the Holy Spirit wouldn’t be necessary.
This is not a new problem for us human beings. Paul didn’t want to follow Jesus. He wanted to persecute Jesus followers. But Jesus changed that as Paul traveled to Damascus (Acts 9), didn’t he? In our reading from Acts this Sunday (Acts 16:9-15), again, Paul didn’t want to do something, he didn’t want to go to Macedonia, but God’s Spirit called him to go, and so he went.
So often, we refuse to use our gifts and talents that we have yet to discover, but the Holy Spirit calls us, challenges us and prods us. It makes no differences how old or how young we are, God’s Spirit is calling us to do things and go places we do not want to. My prayer is that daily each of us might be open to listening to the call of the Holy Spirit for our lives and that, although we may not want to, we would be willing to accept God’s call into a life of the unknown. Oh, it is a little scary, but when we go, we go knowing that the Advocate, God’s Spirit, goes with us.
Have a blessed week!
Shalom,
Pr. Dave