Influence

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It has been a long while since I have posted anything here. I have been busy completing three years toward my B.A. in English and my senior year is underway. My current class (Creative Writing) has finally given me the space to take off the tight harness of academic writing rules, and it feels SO GOOD!! After reading my first assignment, Mom and Daddy gave it their thumbs up and suggested I make it a blog post, so here it is. It is my story and their story. It's a little longer than my usual posts, but as with everything I have ever posted here, I pray it encourages you to run "up the sunbeam to the sun" (C. S. Lewis). "Follow my example,  as I follow the example of Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV I sat above them on the stairs. Looking down through the window-like openings in the partition between the living room and the stairway, I listened to the basketball players, football players, baseball players, wrestlers, track athletes, both the lettermen

Ek Kaleo

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I find myself feeling rusty at the keyboard, out of practice, unsure if I still know how . . . wondering many things I don't want to give words to for fear of sounding pathetic.  But the truth I am wrestling with will not let me leave it at that!  I am made for more than self-doubt and fear of failure--both are born of pride and neither is at home in the heart of anyone who is both image-bearer and daughter of the one true God.

Esther and Isaiah are on my mind as I write.  Esther, an ordinary Jewish girl suddenly found herself in the palace of a foreign king, about to be his new queen.  She believed Mordecai when he told her she was made "for such a time as this." (Esther 4:14 NIV) She risked everything to save her people, and DID.  Isaiah the prophet found himself face to face with the pre-incarnate Christ, and said "Here am I, send me." (Isaiah 6:8 NIV)  The mind-blower is that Isaiah didn't even know what the mission was when he committed himself to take it on!!

I too am called to greatness in my own time.  There is a call on my life, right here, right now.  While I may never know the specific nature and duties of my call before they are required, I do know that I am called to be God's girl in my place and time in history.  I, like Esther, am made "for such a time as this."   

So are you!  

That truth puts each of us squarely in a position of great responsibility!

I must
believe that
in order
to act
like that!

I need to get it really and truly into my head, my heart, my whole being, that I am "ek kaleo," that is, CALLED OUT.  In God's design and enablement, I am CALLED to be a powerhouse of dynamic impact, and that is what I CAN be if I will abandon my own thoughts and stumbling blocks.  I don't have to know all the details of where God is taking me, I just need to put one obedient foot in front of the other, taking the steps He directs me to take, one at a time.


The most loving thing I can do for God, for my family, for my world and for myself is to 

LIVE CALLED.

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
         I have called you by name; you are Mine!" 









What do you think it means to LIVE CALLED?
What characterizes a life of CALL-ED-NESS?
What are some practical ways to get knowledge of the CALL into our everyday thinking?

Comments

  1. KathOctober 20, 2010 at 2:15 AM

    thanks for the challenge to live called, shaunie. i like that.
    Kath

    ReplyDelete

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