The Call
Leadership Lessons Book-by-Book – Jeremiah
It was the beginning of 1985. I graduated from Kalani High School the previous year and was working at J.C. Penneys. With whatever free time I had between my job and my studies at the University of Hawaii, I spent helping Mike Palompo at a Youth for Christ club ministering to the students at McKinley and Roosevelt High Schools. I really enjoyed volunteering at these meetings; they were the same meetings I attended right before I graduated high school. Sometimes I got to help with the games or announcements, but because my job conflicted with the meeting nights, I couldn’t always be there. Even as a young ChristianI knew I wanted to be involved in ministry, so I made the decision to quit my retail job and found a job as a messenger in downtown Honolulu, one that was more conducive to a ministry schedule.
Soonafter I was made an official volunteer with Youth for Christ and started helping out every week. After a few months I was put in charge of games. I took this ministry task seriously and began buying books on games for youth groups and created a form for every game that could be played; it had the name of the game, materials, goal, direction, and how the winner was determined. Over time I had this thick binder full of games and each game could be played once a year, never repeated, so the students would never know what to expect. Eventually, Mike put me in charge of programming which involved scheduling every element of the club meeting. After four and a half years of volunteering under Mike, he put me in charge of the whole club, and now, with 14 volunteers strong, our outreach included Kalani and Kaimuki High Schools.
Those eight years of doing youth ministry were some of the best ministry years of my life. I learned all kinds of ministry skills and made great friendships, and it felt like we were saving the world. Looking back, pursuing youth ministry during that season of my life was one of the best decisions I made. But did I really make it, or did God make it for me?
When we come to the second prophetical book of the Bible, we meet the one who will become the weeping prophet, better known as Jeremiah. His ministry spans 40 years, during the reign of four kings: Josiah, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, during the last days of Judah. This is the prophet who will see the destruction and fall of Jerusalem, hence the term “weeping prophet,” but we’ll get more into that when we get into the book of Lamentations.
At the beginning of the book, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
And before you were born I consecrated you;
I have appointed you a prophet to the nations” (1:5).
You may have read this verse several times, but the ramifications are huge. Note the personal actions of the Lord:
• I formed you.
• I knew you.
• I consecrated you.
• I have appointed you.
It is the Lord who takes the initiative to determine Jeremiah’s calling. It is not Jeremiah who determines his calling, it is the Lord. This aligns with what Paul writes in Ephesians, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (2:10).
So what does this mean for us? It means we don’t create our own calling, we discover the calling the Lord has for us. The sovereign Lord, who is in control of all things, the Creator, the Master Planner, the One who loves like no other…He knows what our calling is. The difficulty is understanding what that calling is.
It’s been my experience that God reveals His calling for you a little at a time. From 18-35 years old, you need to go through a number of various jobs and volunteer opportunities to have a good grasp of your gifts, abilities, and skills. This is also a good time to sense what you are passionate about. This will go into your future calling. From 35-55, you have a better sense of what opportunities to say yes and no to. You know what you’re good at and not good at. Around this time, your passion and purpose are a little more focused. You want to say yes to those things you are passionate about. You want to make the second half of your life count. From 55-on, you are thinking of what you’re leaving behind, what you’re legacy is going to be. All that you’ve learned needs to be passed on to the next generation. By this time, you should have a firm understanding of your calling.
Your calling doesn’t mean you have to be in full-time ministry. I recently met a 45-year old businessman who feels a call to do well in the I.T. business so he could bless Christian ministries through technology and the use of his offices. Because of this call, pastors from the neighbor island were able to join a Christian training happening on Oahu, held at his offices.
I know that understanding your call is not easy. It first starts with understanding that the Lord has a certain call on your life. The second step is to take a look back over your life and look at the positive and negative events the Lord has brought you through. Is there a common theme? What were some of the major lessons He taught you? Through these experiences, what have you become passionate about? If you were to look back over your life, what was the Lord calling you to?
Questions to Think About:
• Do you sense a call from God? What is your best understanding of your call?
• Are you executing your call even if you’re not being paid to do it?
© Gary Lau 2015
All rights reserved. This article may not be distributed, forwarded or duplicated without prior permission from the author.
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