LISTEN FOR GOD’S CALL

Many of us are familiar with the story of Jonah and the whale. Jonah gets swallowed, stays a while in the great fish and gets spit up. What a picture; hard to forget. It’s a great story, but why was Jonah swallowed in the first place? Well, he was running away from a job God wanted him to do. God asked Jonah to give the people of Nineveh a warning so that they could repent. Jonah didn’t like the people of Nineveh, so he ran as far away as he could. God was calling, but Jonah said no.

Has God ever called you? He’s called me, a lot. I don’t always get the message right away, and sometimes I resist it. If I listen, the message is always good. Here’s an example. I’m a teacher. I was thinking about retiring because the part-time position I’d held for several years was ending. Retirement seemed like the perfect answer. Then God called. He called me to teach, full time, at a Christian school.

Now remember, I’m looking at retiring. Full time was not something I wanted. Still God created a job that needed to be filled (in August, mind you), had the principal call me and made me instantly feel comfortable in that school. I said I’d never teach 6th grade, but I’ve been doing it for eight years now, and I love it. God knew what was right for me, and called me to go. I went, reluctantly, but God was right.

Now I’m not saying we should all expect career-changing calls from God. Nor do I think we all have to be prophets like Jonah. Maybe the call will be to listen, just listen, to a friend who needs to talk. Maybe it will be to show patience to that elderly relative who always seems to call at just the wrong time. Maybe it’s just to smile and say hello to that someone we pass every day but never notice.

God’s calls can be little or life-changing. Still we know what those calls are. We just have to listen. Are we listening?

— Bev Kinego

Courtesy of The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist