Is your phone ringing?
No, really. Is it ringing?
I saw someone the other day almost jump out of their pants to get to their cell phone when it rang. I’m guilty. I have done the same thing.
It’s amazing the sense of urgency in our lives when a text dings on our phone, a Facebook notification occurs, or someone calls us. We are urgent it seems with everyone except the people who really matter.
How many times has your spouse, grandmother, uncle, close friend, pastor called and you are just kind of like, “eh, I can call them back later.” Or, “I know my iPhone is set up to show read receipts but I just won’t open the text. I will get back with them later…”
Again, I am guilty. Often I will run after my phone to respond immediately to a text from someone, let’s say, not all that close to me. Yet will give the others a waiting period frequently.
Why do we do this? Is it because we think those people will always be there? We think we can respond at our convenience because they will always be there waiting on our response?
I am not sure what it is. But we really need to stop doing this to each other. And to God.
Abraham, Jonah, and many others, (including you), were/are called to do something. To go somewhere. To give a kind word to a stranger. Help the elderly person carry their groceries. Who knows? There are probably a thousand things in a day where if we really paid attention, we could have been of more service.
Regardless, we are called to something greater.
Perhaps the best aspect of being called is that we are not left alone. If God calls you somewhere, you aren’t going alone. God will be with you. Nobody else may come so it may feel a little lonely, but God will be with you. There is nowhere on earth God will call you that He is not already there.
Far too often we think we can, ‘say the prayer,’ and be zapped with all that fruit of the spirit stuff. We also act too much like Moses at times. We know about the goodness God has gifted us with yet we walk around with a veil on covering it up. “This is my glory! This is my God! If you want some, go to the mountain yourself!”
We may not vocally say it. But come on, don’t act like it doesn’t happen.
2 Corinthians is one of my favorite books of the Bible. Chapter 3 talks about Moses and this veil. It talks about how Moses would wear a veil over his face to cover the fading glory of God. Then it mentions in 3:16, “Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”
But it doesn’t stop there. 3:18 says, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as the Spirit of the Lord.”
One more. in between all that is 3:11: “For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.”
Veil. Lifted. Glory. More of it.
Now at what point do we have the right to all this, “You go find Jesus yourself,” business?
This lets us know the glory is to be shown. The veil is lifted. The glory doesn’t need to be hidden. In fact, just the opposite.
God is calling you to something. I don’t know what it is. Pray and figure it out. Maybe it’s something simple. Maybe it’s something complicated. Either way, God is already there.
Don’t hide the glory. Know that the glory we get to show is even much more glorious.
Be: unveiled.