Whatchya Gonna Do About It?

As a teenager, I can remember my late Uncle Pat showing me his collection of guns once, and just drooling at all the beautiful pieces of firepower he owned.  He wasn’t a particularly generous guy until very late in his life, but I always kind of held out hope that someday one or two of those guns might end up in my possession. 

10 years ago, as a gift for my ordination, he gave me an old .30/06 deer rifle that was one of the first things he bought after he returned from WWII.  It wasn’t particularly beautiful or worth a whole lot of money, but it shot straight and I’ve used it to take a couple of deer. 

3 or 4 years ago though, after he had passed away, his widow gave my dad a couple of guns to give to my brother and I.  Since my brother’s older, he got to choose first, and being primarily a bird hunter, he chose an old 16 gauge shotgun.  All that my dad told me was that I was getting another deer rifle.  When I went to get it, I found a beautiful Winchester pre-64, Model 70 .243 Featherweight.  If you don’t know much about guns, you’re probably like, “So what.”  But if you know anything at all about deer rifles and pre-64 Winchesters, you’re interested!  

After doing a little research online, I found that this rifle, still in excellent condition, was made in 1955.  And I found out how much it was worth!  It was worth more than the last 2 cars I’ve driven! 

Then I thought, “What am I gonna do with this?”  I was almost afraid to shoot it, let alone take it out in a field or forest in the weather and hunt with it.  I took it out to shoot at some targets, and found that it was the sweetest shooter I’ve ever put to my shoulder.  Low recoil.  A scope that was still dialed in at 100 yards.  And it seemed about 10 pounds lighter than that old .30/06. 

As I thought about it, I simply realized that this beautiful gun was made to hunt.  I would have never considered selling it because it was a precious gift.  It wouldn’t have done any good sitting in my gun cabinet collecting dust.  I had to hunt with it.  And so my son Isaac and I have done just that with this gun.  It’s what it was made for. 

You and I were made for something too.  We were made for a relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ.  We were made to do great things for God and we were made to bring glory to Him and advance His Kingdom.  There’s a sad thing about many of us though.  We don’t realize that.  We know how great God is.  We know how much Jesus loves us.  We know the great price that Jesus paid for the forgiveness of our sins and the power of his resurrection.  But we don’t know what we’re gonna do with it.  Or we don’t know how to do anything with it. 

Focus your thoughts for a few minutes on what Ephesians 4:1 (part of one of today’s readings from For the Love of God) has to say: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”

As the Apostle Paul writes these words of encouragement and exhortation to his friends in the Church at Ephesus, he is writing from prison.  Not in a prison where he’s getting 3 meals a day, cable TV and cigarettes on the tax payers’ dimes.  Probably from a dark dungeon where he’s often chained, enduring all manner of physical, emotional and spiritual hardship. 

But he has no complaints.  There’s a calm assuredness throughout this letter of the greatness of God and all that we have in Jesus.  For Paul, it’s a blip on the radar screen of life. 

I think that his words aren’t just about the physical prison that he’s in.  He’s talking about a spiritual reality in his life.  It’s the reality that the love of God through Jesus Christ has completely and totally captured his life.  His thoughts.  His feelings.  His mind.  His heart.  His body.  He’s completely sold out to Jesus and bringing Him glory.

It’s easy when somebody who seemingly has it all tells us to get our spiritual act together.  It’s another thing altogether when we hear this from a man who is in chains and doesn’t know when he might see the light of day.  Or if he’ll ever see the light of another day.

“Live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”

In other words, do something with what God has done for you! 

This issue of the calling of God on our lives is something that we’ve got to take seriously if we’re ever going to understand that we must do something with it.  This calling is more than a “Hey you, getchyur butt over here and serve me.”  The calling of God throughout Scripture is a divine invitation, written in love with the blood of Jesus, to embrace a life of beauty and transformation. 

I’m bad at making and appreciating beautiful things in life, but imagine if you will a bride-to-be who patiently and painstakingly creates and crafts and hand-inscribes a hundred beautiful invitations to her wedding for her friends and family.  (See what I did there?  I went from talking about shooting deer to Pinterest type stuff in one blog!).  She does this not because she HAS to.  She could easily outsource the job to a printing company or her maid of honor, right?  She has better things to do with her time.  But she does it because she wants her friends and family to know that they’re valued and loved and appreciated, and wants them to be a part of something that’s going to be beautiful and wonderful.

God hasn’t called us to new life in Jesus Christ because He HAS to.  He has called us to new life in Christ because He WANTS to.  He wants us to know that we’re valued, loved and appreciated.  He wants us to experience the abundant life that Jesus promised to those who would trust in him.  He wants us to be a part of something wonderful and beautiful, that’s far greater than we could ever imagine.

Our response matters.  Paul, speaking for God, tells us to live a life that’s worthy of this calling.  In other words, live your life like this invitation and calling matter.  Make the most of your opportunities to experience transformation.  Make the most of your opportunities to serve others.  Make the most of your opportunities to love others.  Make the most or your opportunities to help others know what this invitation and calling are all about! 

Ephesians 4 continues with great care and instruction on how to be The Church that Jesus wants us to be.  Read it, and be encouraged.  Pray and seek God on where you belong in His Church.  Pray and seek God on how you can serve and love and invite others to be a part of His Church.  Do something with what God has given to you!