Feeling 'Called'

Author Ann H. Smith writes, "The Bible is full of people who protested when God called them. While some like Isaiah say, "Here am I; send me," many give God excuses for why he has made a poor selection. Jeremiah's excuse is his age. Although God tells him that before Jeremiah was born, he was set apart as a prophet, Jeremiah balks at his call.

Pastor of North Point Church, Andy Stanley says, "I never really felt called to ministry as much as my friends did. They would go down front after a worship service and tell my dad, 'I feel called to ministry.' ...And I used to think, 'I'm not feeling that.' I can remember trying to feel called to ministry - whatever that meant. Almost jealous of these guys who had such certainty about what God wanted them to do. I just didn't. And I think I was afraid.

"So one day - I was probably a sophomore or junior in college - riding with my dad somewhere in our Grand Safari station wagon, I said, 'Dad, do you have to feel called to ministry? Or can you volunteer?' He turned to me and said, 'I think you can volunteer.' I said, 'Well, I'd like to volunteer. I don't know if I'm called or not.' That was it. That was my big moment. No angels. No voices."

Whether we feel called to a "God idea" or we are simply willing to volunteer, this book of the Prophet Jeremiah helps us. It helps us because "God's ideas" are most always bigger ideas than "human ideas." And that means they are full of challenge and spiritual sweating. God's ideas pull us away from our "comfort zones" into God's "blessing zones." If I will (and maybe you, too) just be willing to go and do what the Lord leads us to do, then we will find blessing.

Jeremiah's task is difficult. He has to speak some hard words to a people as they move into and through a period of captivity. It is hard to speak of "God's ideas" when all is falling around you. It is also hard to listen for God's word when life is caving.

God bless the "Jeremiahs" whether they feel called or whether they simply volunteer.

Read on my friends. Good news is coming! - Dr. Terry Walton, Senior Pastor