What we do for Faith

This is a pertinent question that may require a life-changing answer. Not everyone is summoned (one way of describing a “call”) to sacrifice family, friends, certain employment or home and its associated amenities. Some are, and go forward although not eager to step outside their comfort zone. In fact, accepting major changes in how one’s life is led can be too unnerving to undertake, and some shrink from that extreme. Then there are those who have been given a dream, a desire to walk outside the confines of convention. A call to serve may come either way, by duty or desire. Sacrifice might entail anything from disencumbering oneself of possessions and going into the mission field, to jumping into the public arena to run for elected office, submitting to the unrelenting heat that comes with that decision. Any of the options will involve pleasant and painful aspects. Life isn’t easy and neither is service, no matter what the calling. What prompted this discussion of callings to stand for a cause, especially one of faith, is the date. Today is the anniversary of fulfilling a decision to relinquish a “normal” life for a season, answering an unusual call to independent mission that has taken me across the country’s highways six times in five years. “Unusual” because this route of service is precisely opposite to my preference – stability… I’m a planner. But what traveling with just my tools and a few belongings has taught me has been the hard lesson of relying on God to provide the way for me to serve, and all that I’ve needed in order to serve. This ministry (and let us recall that the definition of ministry is service) has been low-key, up-front and personal; dealing individually with people’s needs, which includes my own as the Lord doesn’t strip everything and neglect our supply as well. To those who sit on the detractor side of the Bible, it can be confusing how the faithful in Christ are called down so many divergent paths. What makes perfect sense to Kim Davis, Saeed Abedini, a good friend who has been around the world six times as a missionary, probably 20 times to India, our legal researcher who gave up a plentiful lifestyle to help individuals mired in government oppression, or even me with my little on-the-road ministry, is that we can be content following the call and standing for Jesus Christ’s salvation message. Leaning on the Gospel of Grace, God’s gift to us of truth and liberty in loving others as He loves us, can give the strength to weather persecution (like those Christians suffering at the hands of ISIS) or the daily challenges of facing down secular mores. What we do for Faith is unheard of to those who have none. Yet we can revel in the joy He gives us by being able to serve someone, be it in public office or one-on-one. By standing firm in Faith and, hopefully, reflecting the charity of God, only in this way can disunity be soothed and healed. It takes realizing that life isn’t about “me” but about the whole Creation, and serving the One who gave it, us, breath, by serving each other in His Name.