I Finally Found My Calling

I was sitting on the beach awhile back, and I had this thought:

This is what I am called to do...

I am called to sit here and look at the ocean.

I'll wait for you to stop laughing before I continue. :)

Now, obviously, this is not the entirety of my calling. That would be unbiblical. Yet there is something about sitting and enjoying His beauty that is essential to who I am created to be.

There is something very right and very holy about looking at His creation and resting in the fact that He made it - and He didn't need my help! And it is all so stunning. What is it about women that we walk around with this perpetual feeling that everything will fall apart without us?

That's one thing I love about God. There is absolutely nothing I can do, or leave undone, that will change the fact that He is completely fulfilled and completely capable.

If I stop serving or strategizing or cleaning or fixing for a little while, He somehow manages to take care of the whole universe without me! It sounds obvious, I know, but it isn't until I'm sitting and staring at a vast ocean or a peaceful waterfall or giant trees that it really sinks into my heart again.

I don't have to be motivated by guilt or fear. He has it all under control. All I need to do is draw near to Him and just do what He tells me to do and be who He wants me to be in this moment.

I don't have to save the world, mend all the broken hearts, fix all of the dysfunction, end hunger and poverty (that one isn't likely anyway, since Jesus said the poor will always be among us), and make sure my home is spotless and that I have put a healthy, inexpensive dinner on the table while I am at it!

The Bible is God's story about Himself and His purposes. There's so much wisdom in there about who I should be and how I should live. Yet He makes it really clear that it's not about learning all those "shoulds" and then adding them to my to do list for this week!

The idea is to draw near to Him, abide in Him, and let Him glorify Himself through me. To let Him live... not me. To let Him love... not me. To let Him be gentle...not me. To let Him be kind... not me.

But doesn't that sound...wrong?

Doesn't the Bible say I'm supposed to be kind and gentle?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25

I can't be kind or gentle any more than I could reach inside my heart and pull out a kumquat. My job is to keep in step with the Spirit. He produces the fruit! (I am glad, though, that He didn't leave us wondering what the fruit looks like!)

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5

So where did I get the notion that following God is more about DOING than ABIDING?

Selah.