Remembering the Call

I think about it always  this time of year.  As the Fall means that some birds head south and the Summer means that children want to head out of school and into the pool, so this the month of June will have this to be on my mind.   You see,  it was 42 years ago this month when I was first appointed as a United Methodist pastor at the grand young age of 20 years old.    Though I was quite young, I had already spent two years on a church staff:   one year as a youth director and another year as the part time associate pastor of a church.   

What I think about is not just the details about my life that I mentioned above, but the wonder of the fact that God called me to be a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.   There were a lot of people that were better students of the Bible than I was.   There were also many folks who were more familiar with the ways of the church  and the Christian faith than I was  at that time as  I had been a Christian and a member of the church for less than 5 years.    Despite it all,  I had the audacity to say (as had Isaiah the prophet years before):   “Here am I.  Send me.” 

Years ago, there was a preaching professor at Duke named James T. Cleland.   He had retired from Duke before I became a student there.  However, I had the chance to hear him preach in my early days of ministry.  I remember him challenging the congregation (including this newbie preacher)  to “remember their conversion experience”.      It is good and right for each of us to remember over and over again  not only the fact that Christ Jesus called us to follow him but also to remember our calling to   be a pastor, a Sunday School teacher, and the like.

 I read the entire Book of Acts  at least once a year.   One of the things I noticed is that the apostle Paul recounts his calling by God on the Damascus Road several times.   One place where we hear the story of Paul’s calling is in Acts 22 where we read: 

Then Paul said: ³ “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.⁴ I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, ⁵ as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. ⁶ “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. ⁷ I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’⁸ “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.“ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. ⁹ My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. ¹⁰ “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.“ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ ¹¹ My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.

Every once in a while, each of us who live under the banner of Christ need to remember our calling by God.   I find myself doing that this time of year, and I encourage you to do the same every once in a while.   Have a blessed week.-     Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:  O Lord and God, thank you for calling me to be your servant.  Give me a heart to hear your call in this day;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  

Making The Better Choice

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-       “The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost

In these days of high school graduations,  I have been thinking today about choices.  Above you will find words from Robert Frost’s classic poem, “The Road Not Taken”, where a person decides to take the “road less travelled by.”  We face choices everyday- what to eat… whether to answer a phone call or text message… what way to travel to work or other places.    Some of those choices are quite important and others seem to be trivial and inconsequential.   

I have been thinking today when I faced a choice many years ago.  I had accepted the invitation to speak at a high school graduation ceremony.  I had my address ready and prepared.   On the day of the event, something came up that was important.  What should I do faced with two important events on the same day?  What choice would I make?       To the chagrin of the headmaster,   I backed out of the address to the high school graduates.    What was so important that I made that choice?    I made that choice because about the same time that day my oldest daughter, Heather Elizabeth, was born.    I felt it was more important to be there for the birth of my daughter than to be there to speak to the high school graduates as a pastor.

Sometimes,  the choices we face in life are  not between good and evil, but between things that are both  important.   What is the better choice at the time?     I thought being there to witness the birth of Heather Elizabeth was more important, and I have no regrets.    We hear a story in Luke 10 about a choice that was made by a follower of Jesus, Mary.   Listen to the story:

³⁸ Now as they were traveling along, Jesus^[z] went into a village. A woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹ She had a sister named Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet and kept listening to what he was saying. ⁴⁰ But Martha was worrying about all the things she had to do, so she came to him and asked, “Lord, you do care that my sister has left me to do the work all by myself, don’t you? Then tell her to help me.”   ⁴¹ The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha! You worry and fuss about a lot of things. ⁴² But there’s only^[aa] one thing you need. Mary has chosen what is better,^[ab] and it is not to be taken away from her.”

I cannot recall what I had prepared to say to those high school graduates many years ago, but what I would say to them today is this:    Life is filled with choices.  Make the better choice.    Have a joy-filled week.-   Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:  O Lord and God, give us wisdom as we face the choices that are before us in this day, this week, and this life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen.