Sunday Rockin Chair Thoughts pt 8

Purpose and calling are two different things. Calling woos us. Calling leads and guides us to purpose and purpose is “that thing” that pulls us out of bed every morning with excitement and enthusiasm. Together they make destiny clear and when destiny is clear life is fulfilling. A fulfilled life is empowered by God to succeed and cannot help but make life better for everything and everyone connected to it. “Calling” is a sort of “consecration” if you will; we know we’ve been elected to do a specific job and that job becomes our life’s work and the work blesses the lives of others which in turn will bless us. Calling is just what it is; an invitation. I think we lie if we say “we never heard a call in our life.” It’s easier to say that than to admit we heard the calling and were indifferent, selfish and too lazy to respond. Some people know early on in their lives what their purpose and calling are. Some people live an entire life and then die without ever finding out and some people know but refuse to pursue their purpose and calling. Everyone’s constitution is different but freedom of choice is one thing we all have in common. We can choose life and success or, we can choose failure and death. Am I saying we’ll just keel over dead if we don’t realize our purpose? No, I’m talking about spiritual malnutrition. We’ve all, at one time or another compromised our integrity and paid the price for bad choices and decisions. Whatever the reason for not pursuing our dream, the end result is the same … a life unfulfilled. You might “think and grow rich” or you might just “grow old and die” but if purpose and calling aren’t pursued then destiny is left behind and life – no matter how good or bad – is unfulfilled. Success is getting from one side of “the wall” to the other. Success = dreams come true; reaching the Promise Land and then taking possession of it. Success comes with a price; otherwise it’s worthless. Success comes only by struggle; otherwise it is gratuitous and won’t last because it’s built on the sand.

Everyone’s “wall” is different and everyone has their own way of overcoming the wall they face as well as their own time frame for overcoming it. Some people leap right over the wall with no problem … they move toward God with total abandon, like Peter stepping out of the boat and onto the water. Some people take their time getting over the wall and some people never even try because they have no clue … they’re content with life on “this” side of the wall and for one reason or another don’t care about what’s on the other side; their self esteem is too low to produce the energy they need to fight the good fight of faith. We can’t be overcomers if there’s nothing to overcome. By definition, “succeed” means “to take the place of.” Take the place of what? Take the place of failure! If there’s no opposition, no struggle then it’s not really success, just a free ride. Our ability to overcome the wall in our life depends largely on our upbringing and how we were raised … how we were taught to deal with trials and situations … how we’re equipped to handle failure. We all have to deal with issues and drama. We all face trials and situations because even though God is in control, there is a spiritual outlaw loose on this planet who has nothing better to do than stir up trouble in our lives. This outlaw won’t play fair and won’t quit playing so we have to stay one step ahead of his game all the time. He’s a tactician; he knows your nature; he has a print out on your weaknesses; he knows how to evaluate your “hot buttons” and he knows what it takes to trip you up; he has a profile and a contract on you, BUT … he has no power over us unless we give it to him through compromise. Whatever resource we use to put him in his place determines our success or failure in this lifetime, which in turn determines success or failure in our eternal lifetime as well. It’s not just enough to “make it to Heaven” when we leave this world. God has restored Heaven on earth, otherwise how can we pray “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” and not believe that we can actually live our lives above the circumstances?