Hearing Your Life Calling

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally a song, hymn or selection of poetry to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Vujicic, Nick. Limitless Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life. Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2013. pp 124-126.

Opening Thought: In the devotion reading for today, Nick Vujicic speaks about his calling and how it was placed before him in contrast to the path that was originally suggested to him. I won’t get into his details, but the point is that it can be challenging to know where God is calling you. When I was high school, I always wanted to be in one of two profession, either a carpenter or a police officer. A builder or sustainer if you will. But I also wanted to be an artist, I love to draw, paint, sculpt and more. All these possible futures were not quite the right calling, as another calling rang out more true, but I’ll admit I did not always believe it to be true. We do not always know right away with where we are being call and God does not always calls us in the easiest of times.    

The devotional begins with: Psalm 37:3-6

Trust in the Lord and do good;
    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
    your vindication like the noonday sun.

Second Thought:

I believe that in an unfallen world; God would simply whisper in our ears and we would find ourselves carried to a life of community and work that fulfilled us thoroughly. In the state we are in there is a bit more noise in the way of such clarity. We don’t just have God calling us we also have our family, friends, peers, society, desires, anxiety and fear all trying to wiggle their way in to our ear as well. The good news is, even if you don’t find yourself in the ideal situation, if you are serving God, God will find a way to make you shine, in a way that serves your spirit and will serve others as well. That is the beauty of the faith, even though we may cultivate our lives perfectly, or life may not be to our ideal, if we serve God and recognize God as the drive in our journey, we can really appreciate the lives we are given and in turn offer our best selves in all we do.     

Continual Work: Take time to remember God is working on you, and to aim to listen for that call. It is never to late to serve the Lord.

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: As someone who runs worship and spiritual programming, I am always on the look out for how God is calling me to lead, teach and support. I feel with covid-19 entering into the winter month, I will be called in new directions for sure.

Scripture time: Jeremiah 18:3-4

So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

Such a beauty in poetry and thought to see the self as pottery, chipped and cracked. I often like to watch craft videos online, especially where people take broken things and create something new or restoring them to their original work. When I watch these videos, I try to utter to myself the reminder if we humans have the ability to refurbish material, imagine what the infinite God can do with us. If we are made to be a pot to hold flowers, but some how we become cracked, God may wish to restore us back to being a flower pot, or maybe we will be given a new purpose, to hold pens, be a shelter for a fish in an aquarium or being an over used analogy. We are much more complex than a pot, but that much more loved by God. 

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Artistic Close:

As I mentioned I enjoy restorations, I also collect weapons so check out this video an see how some skill, dedication and care can restore.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBA4jPWGpjs