I have been asked so many times in the past few weeks why I’m still in school studying to be a minister if my passion is obviously in writing and writing only. The answer is that I have many passions, and that God told me to be a minister. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried it, but saying no to God is oft times like talking to a brick wall. Once God has made a decision for your life, you better get on board because the train is leaving with you on it whether you want to be on it or not.

I’ve had many discussions with my mom about this, because she’s wondered the exact same thing. I get thrills out of writing, and I enjoy it like no other hobby I have ever had. But to me that is all it is. I have no desire to become a professional writer where I spend days upon days writing and only writing (I’m sure there would be some editing in there, too). It’s not what I want to do with my life. I want to be a minister, to spread the good news that Christ is Risen and that God is in our land and that the Spirit loves us with all that she can. This is my passion for life, for living, for being who I am.

Well, that was a bit of a side note, but it leads me to this. My mom (whom I adore and love) forwarded me this email today. Scott Hedegaard writes daily devotionals that he sends out in a mass email. This was today’s.

Check out Isaiah 44:24-28.

God makes some strange choices sometimes. God chooses Abraham, who at the beginning of the story is pretty nondescript. Abraham’s grandson Jacob – a deceiver and a cheat – is chosen over his brother Esau. Moses, a murderer, is elected to be the one to bring Israel from slavery to freedom. David the shepherd boy is considered the ideal king.

Still one can imagine the people in exile, upon hearing this announcement, saying, “Who? Really?” God calls Cyrus a foreign warrior, someone not even of the people as the one to shepherd Israel, the one to bring them deliverance, the one by whose command the Holy City will be rebuilt.

But we know how that goes. God called us too. And I suspect with a lot of us (me especially) people around us said, “Who? Really?” We may have even remarked that ourselves. Yet we are chosen and we are called and we are sent. And it is not by our own power that we are able to fulfill God’s calling. No, God gives us what we need to be messengers of grace and rebuilders in the city of God.

Send us out, Lord; give us power. Amen

It’s just something to think about the next time you have the reaction of “Who? Really?” Do not doubt what God had set in place and in motion. Breathe in and accept that God’s work is at hand in the moment.