God’s call is about how we are going to bless others. I realized this when I read the call of Abram in Genesis 12. Abram, who later became “Abraham,” heard God declare this:
I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
The problem for us is that we, or at least I, think that when God calls, something really big is going to happen… for me. But God calls us in order to bless—to improve the life of—not me, but those around me.
Rick Warren, who sold about 40 million of The Purpose-Driven Life, thankfully has some good things to say. He writes in his characteristic direct fashion:
God shaped you for service, not for self-centeredness.
Rick Warren means in this that our S H A P E (Our spiritual gifts, heart/passion, aptitudes, personality, and experience) are unique to us, they are something that God has formed in us, and they are for the benefit of others.
2 comments:
Are they mutually exclusive? Can I serve out of my self-centeredness? After all, isn't that essentially what motivated Esther?
And of course, just because something is worth hearing, that doesn't make it easy to hear!
I don't know that we have enough in the text to know what motivated Esther, but I would say this: We can self out of our selfish, in a certain sense (knowing what gives you deep joy and pursuing it), but not our self-centeredness (the world revolves around me).
That's how I see it at least (following some reflections by C.S. Lewis in "Surprised by Joy." How does that sound to you?
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