Walking in the Calling

"Mostly dead."

Today's verse--Ephesians 4:2-7--is great, but they (the people at the site that provides this daily verse) for some reason left off the first sentence of that passage. And it's the one that really hit me. The first sentence is this:

"I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received..."

That is powerful to me.

Paul is in prison, and he is beseeching his readers. Beseeching them to what? Get him out of there? Pray for him? Bring him books and cheese and Jambas? No. These are the things I would beg of my friends were I to be locked up in jail, I guarantee you that.

Paul implores them--us--to walk in accordance with the glory and the gospel and the gifts which have been bestowed upon us by Jesus, through His death and sacrifice and resurrection....showered upon us in love and by the miracle of grace.

I have to ask myself if I do that--if I walk in that calling. I can tell you that perhaps I occasionally stumble into that walk, my toes just lightly tapping upon that path ever so briefly... but mostly NO. Which I think--to quote Billy Crystal in 'The Princess Bride'--is like being 'mostly dead.'

Last night in our home we were all privileged to be part of a wondrous moment--the miracle of God bringing beauty to what was intended for evil: lovers of Jesus coming together to pray, stand in unity, trust, listen, praise, laugh, cry, and believe in what God is doing. He is doing more than we know and even the fraction we comprehend is astounding.

Thank you Jesus for allowing me to be part of a prayer family that does indeed bear with one another in love, and is of one spirit, called to one hope under one God. Help me to walk in that which I have been called, and thank you that you never stop calling. Thank you for continuously holding us all with incomprehensible, unending love.