As we mature in our walk with God, we strive to understand the call he has placed on our lives.
What is it that God has truly called us to do? For me, when looking back it seems to make more sense… my personal history, my personal search, and God lifting me up and out at the perfect moment to serve His purpose and reveal the call. Yes, He saved me, and even after I committed my life to Him, he allowed me to sit on the bench for a dozen or so years while He prepared me to become an ever growing disciple and begin to better understand the call He was placing upon me.
Before I knew Jesus, my life was a mess because of things I had chosen without His guidance. After I knew Jesus, as I sat on the sidelines waiting for the call, I experienced a new way of having my life turned into a mess. This time it was due to circumstance and the actions of another. For a long time I struggled with the conflict of honoring God by remaining in a dysfunctional marriage, or abandoning that marriage, which had become abusive. Had it not been for a perfect combination of unpleasant events, I would not have been ready when God nudged me toward the call. It was time for Him to rescue me and put me back in the game, His game His way.
So how did the call happen?
I opened my mouth and God spoke. What I mean is I found myself saying yes to things that were not my “normal thing”. I told everyone that I was petrified of children…I ended up working every Sunday with the children. I said yes to the Cuba/Florida covenant (now known as Methodists United in prayer) thinking it was just a little “attend and report” kind of job, but the Lord made known the call by placing a heavy burden on my heart for the Cuban people, so I committed myself to that ministry and I thought that that would be “IT”. I had found my niche in Gods plan. He even sent me to Cuba in 2003, and then… at the church in Santiago de Cuba, Pedro Castillo asked for my prayer request, and I (thinking this was going to be about Cuba) asked for a clearer vision of the call on my life.
God’s response was clear, yet very unsettling. I was not expecting to hear His still small voice, but I did, and He said to me,
“I am coming for My Church, not My Churches. You have work to do!”
In response to an audible word from God, you would expect a variety of pious or emotional responses , but my mind just raced, “Huh? You want me to WHAT ???” Then, after a time, it sunk in and became clearer as I encountered the people He placed upon my path. I was to return my attention to my own people and begin to foster a unity between two great fragments of the body of Christ. That was the call He had for me, but I would learn as I continued to grow in Christ, that the call continues to grow as we grow.
Is it a coincidence that at that time in my life I was studying Paul’s letters? I don’t think so. God was showing me that Jewish believers and Jewish non-believers are having the same disagreements in modern times that they had back in ancient times. The more I spoke with Jewish believers in positions of leadership, the more I realized that this is an area of concern that they are well aware of. Many within the believing Jewish community have come to the understanding that they must strive to unify with the Christian community in order to strengthen the body of Christ. And so, for the moment, I had my confirmation and purpose.
At times I wondered, “Why me Lord?” Later, upon deeper reflection, I began to connect with the answers. As a Jew, I had struggled for many years with uncertainty and guilt over betraying my heritage and family by believing in Christ. As a Jew, I also longed to see more of my people hear the Truth and accept their Messiah. As a seeker, I had searched in all the wrong places for God. As a victim of abuse I had learned what it is to have no control over your situation and to put all of your trust in God. As a member of a Methodist church rather than a Messianic congregation, I had experienced first-hand that the church is not teaching anti-antisemitism, but rather love for the chosen people of God. As a member of the Emmaus Community, I discovered that there is fertile, neutral ground on which to build unity between Christian and Jew, not only by participation in the 3 day weekends, but by cultivating long term relationships within integrated reunion groups. Now I can see, from the vantage point of the years on that path, that God had a much larger plan. One that I could not, at that time, comprehend. The call has morphed far beyond unification and understanding between Christian and Jew.
Last night as I watched a National Geographic special on the Hasidic community, a new layer of understanding was revealed to me. As the Hasidic mission was described as an embracing and reconciling of all mankind to God, of living as an example of the love of God, a new brighter light in me was kindled. The call on my life to facilitate unity had expanded to a broader realm, bridging the gap between young and old, rich and poor, free and imprisoned, my American perspective and a third world perspective, and beyond. I realized that I had envisioned my own ability to reach out to a disjointed and dysfunctional world through a lens of human limitations, rather than through the God lens of limitless possibilities.
And so I found myself in deep reflection about where the call had taken me thus far.
I thought back on the birthing of One Month of Wisdom and Wisdom Blog, and then forward to some new ministry opportunities that were recently offered for my prayerful consideration, and again, I was just amazed! All of the past circumstances, events, and cares revealed yet again how God has used every moment of my life, pleasant or unpleasant, to prepare me for the call he has placed upon me. He has made me uniquely qualified, He has placed me where He needs me to be, He continues to lead me every step of the way, and He has placed another new adventure in my path that I know I must undertake, though I have no clue what it will become. I do know this…
The call and the adventure are one and the same!
Blessings & Adventure
Lynn “lynnibug” Rios
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