Ignoring The Call

Every Sunday I mull over my Calling - what is it, is it what I think it is, is it something else that I am ignoring? However, if I let the logical brain go to sleep for a while and let my spiritual brain take over, I know that I am so close to God when I am downtown, and I always have been. I remember when I was quite young, 11 or 12, and taking the bus downtown to meet my grandparents. Before I met them I would wander around, at the time not knowing why I loved it down there so much.

Fast forward 10 years and I was freshly out of University, drawn to the skyscrapers and starting my first job on the 18th floor of Scotia Place. I was part of the hubbub and rusharound world and I loved it, and I loved being downtown. Once in a while I would see people begging for change, and I often ignored them on the outside, but my heart was always with them. Near the end of my tenure downtown, I actually started talking to some of them, and always felt a sense of euphoria afterwards. At the time, however, I was too bogged down in kids and paying the bills, and decided that was going to be my lot in life for a while.

However, every year I would read about a local church group that went down to The Mustard Seed to serve a meal, and I was always upset that I missed it again. For some reason, it was never advertised at our church, even though any of us could have joined in. Year after year, I missed my chance, until I decided that I had to make my own chances. Of course, I procrastinated a while, it was "too far", the traffic was "too busy", but then God opened up a door that I couldn't ignore: I had tried to take the easy route and volunteer right in Devon, but afte submitting my application, I never heard from them again, which didn't make sense, because I was a perfect candidate to volunteer there (and who turns down volunteers??).

That is when I contacted The Mustard Seed.

And now I never grow tired of being there, and I miss it when I'm not there, and I'm always thinking about the poeple I have met. Yes, the drive is long, and yes, I'm tired when I get home, and I don't usually sleep during that night, but when I stepped back and thought about it:

-- It's closer than Ontario
-- It's closer than North Africa
-- I have a warm bed I can sleep in any time

And maybe I'm just blessed that my calling is only forty minutes away, and not 4000 km or half way across the world.

How can I ignore my calling? Our morning sermon contained a quote from an extremely experienced Pastor: Throughout history, the state of a society is directly influenced by the state of Christianity in that society. Maybe if more Christians "walked the walk" our society wouldn't be in the mess that it's in. We shouldn't be blaming the world for corrupting us - we should be blaming ourselves for not influencing the world in a positive way. If we all acted the way Tim Tebow does, maybe he wouldn't be seen as such a "wierdo" and a media spectical - he would just be another Christian doing all that he can for the Glory of God.

It can all happen one person at a time.