What is God calling you to do?
The Anglo-Irish explorer led three exceedingly perilous British expeditions to Antarctica. When Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874 – 1922) advertised for new recruits for his 1914 venture, he tried to sell it with these words: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.”
With stakes far higher, God calls us. You and I are called to come to Christ, by faith, and we’re called to follow Christ in a life spent for God’s glory. I’ve heard His call many times. I heard it first when I was a little boy, and the call grew as I did. But, by the time I got to college, many other calls also rang in my ears: the call of success, the call of control, the call of prestige, and the call of the approval of others – to name a few. As I look back, those lesser calls rang loudly.
Sometimes, God calls us to do things that are next to impossible. Maybe you’re there today. You hear God’s call, but you’re not sure that you can answer, “Yes.”
In 1945, in the dark and cruel concentration camp at Flossenbürg, a man was hanged unjustly. The German pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was executed because he was an honorable man in a world where honor was rare. Bonhoeffer is often remembered for this quote: “The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ … we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with His death – we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross … meets us … When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
“He bids him come and die.” This death to self is perhaps our hardest calling. To give up my “right” to be the captain of my own ship can be an excruciating death, in fact. To die to myself (Galatians 2:20) means that I no longer live for me. Instead, I live for what Jesus desires for me. Big difference. Christ is my Lord. My Master. My King. I’m not the boss anymore. So, before I do anything, I must ask: “Does Christ delight in this for me?” After all, I’m His disciple.
“Come and die.” Are you there right now?
I believe that each of us comes to a critical juncture where the rubber meets the road. I’m forced to decide: Will I stubbornly strive to prop up myself as the captain of my ship, or will I step aside and submit to the only capable Captain?
As we lean into His call, we discover that Christ speaks plainly (Matthew 16:24-26): “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”
Friend, will you follow hard after Christ?
The older I get, the more I have to face the reality of my family and friends crossing over from this life to the next. The reality of death ought to humble all of us. It crushes our pretense of self-preservation. It reminds us that we’re vulnerable and ultimately powerless. The next breath we draw is a gift from God. You see, we have a terminal condition – it’s called life. We’re all terminal, and a final breath is ordained for us all.
On that day, it won’t matter that we earned a nice income or that others were impressed by our movie-star good looks. It won’t matter that we traveled the world – or that we didn’t. It won’t matter that we considered ourselves ready to meet God because “my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds.” Spoiler alert: they don’t. On my last day, the only thing that will matter is: Am I prepared to enter eternity?
So that makes this moment – today – count. What you do with the Son of God matters forever. So I’ll repeat: Will you follow hard after Christ?
That starts with trusting Him. No matter what. Not relying on your righteousness, but His. Not leaning on your own understanding, but His. Not charting your own course – but yielding to His. Not being the captain, but serving the Captain.
Yesterday, many of us watched as Mrs. Erika Kirk forgave her husband’s assassin. I’m still taking it in. It’s one of the most beautiful examples of grace – from one undeserving human to another – that I’ve ever witnessed. I would submit for your consideration that only a person following hard after Jesus can do something like that. When you and I are given the grace to choose the road of forgiveness, we’re choosing the road of Christ’s Lordship. We’re choosing to walk away from a debt that we could have held over someone’s head, so we’re choosing to walk away from our “power” over the person who wronged us. Such death to ourselves is Christlike: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Today, you’re not likely in a position to have to forgive the murderer of someone you love. But I’ll bet you have your own hard calling. Ignore the lesser calls, and answer the call that’s both hardest and best. Courage is a choice.
I’m urging you not to cover your ears. Heed the call. Lay down your life. And pick up the glorious life – your glorious life – for which Christ died and rose again.
If the call of God feels risky – and your calling may well be high-risk – what’s the worst thing that can happen? Nothing can snatch us away from God! In the reassuring words of Romans 8: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? … Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Whew! You and I are free to serve God here and now – with all that we are.
So go do it! Live that life. And don’t look back. Playing it safe is so overrated.
If we are in Christ and trusting in Him, our physical death will do nothing but usher us into Christ’s unending presence and eternal joy. We have it on good authority, my friends, that Jesus – by way of a bloody cross and an empty tomb – has turned death on its head. Death is dead and Christ has won!
If we believe this – you and I – we won’t cling so desperately to this life. Instead, you and I will stretch out our arms in anticipation of the greater life which Christ has purchased for us.
Come and die.
Pastor Charles
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