Don't forsake your calling

This week I came across a powerful statement that I had to highlight in the book I was reading. I normally read with a highlighter in one hand, but the significance of this is that, although I am over half done reading this book, this is the first thing I've marked.

 The statement is this: "We all exchange each day of life for something, and it is a prostitution of life to exchange it for something unworthy of our potential and our calling."

How many people do you know drifting through life living far below their potential? How often have you felt you were doing the same thing? I know I've felt that way at times. When leaders drift, the organizations they lead drift as well. When pastors drift so do their churches.

Each of us have been given gifts to be used in serving others. Each of us have a calling on our lives. So often we think of a calling as something that just applies to ministers and missionaries, but the truth is that every person has a God-given calling. As God told Jeremiah, even before Jeremiah was born God had a purpose for his life. The same is true for you and me.

Every day we get to make choices. Among those choices is whether or not we are going to live into that God-given purpose or drift along doing something far less.

I've retired twice now, and my wife likes to point out that neither of them really took. The problem is that I see too much that I can still do and enjoy doing. I know the gifts God has given me, and when I see opportunities to use those gifts I have to do so.

I enjoy playing golf, and in fact I am playing golf later this week with a couple of friends. I enjoy fishing and have owned a couple of bass boats in the past.  I dearly love sitting on the beach and watching the waves. But, the thought of doing nothing but playing golf and fishing and sitting on the beach makes me tremble. It may sound wonderful, but that is not God's calling on my life.

We each have a set number of days on this earth. Only God knows that number. You may be like me and have more years behind you than before you. Or, you may be a young person really just getting started out in life. Determine to live every day to your full potential and in a way that honors God. The best way to honor God with your life is to fulfill the calling He has for you.