You are called…
…You are chosen
He who calls you; and he also will do it’ 1 Thes 5:24
Life is not about what I earn, or what I own, but rather how can I become the truly magnificent human being God intended me to be?
How can my light shine, so that I can give light to the world?
How can my unselfish, loving actions today, make life a little brighter?
I had a dream, but when I woke it made me feel dissatisfied with my life, it was full of “what if’s?” but it is my choice to stay dissatisfied and to not see it for what it is, the devil’s scheme to try and get me off course from the course I am choosing, defiant joy and hope in things as yet ‘unseen’, “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.”.
In some ways, my course never changes because if my anchor is the changeless God, centred in Christ, if my anchor is the love of that changeless God, centred in Jesus, then it can keep me stable, secure, fulfilled, in any and all circumstances. That is how Paul was able to say, “ rejoice all circumstances”, even whilst he was in chains.
Right now, I am sitting gazing over a beautiful scene in the centre of Athens looking at the hill where he reputedly preached his sermon of the ‘unknown God’ to the Athenians. I can see, even from here, people who have climbed up to look at the view which is largely unchanged from what he would have seen then speaking to them. Athens was a powerful nation then.
He spoke in a language they would understand. The ‘unknown God’ was a dedication they had amidst all their other alters to many other gods. Paul helped them realise that God could now be ‘known’ through the presence and life of Jesus, His son and that He was the God of all the gods, the creator of all things and they just needed to call on his name and thereby discover this deep love, the love of god which desires mercy and not sacrifice, as they turn to Christ and his way of the cross.
His ‘burden’ to love the world is a lighter load. He is the willing servant of us all, teaching us how to truly love and so enables us to love in return. The secret to the fullness of joy each heart longs to know.
Paul’s use of their own altar to illustrate that point, the “unknown God” now ‘known’ in the person of Christ, is a reminder to us all that we have to meet people where they are and use language that they will understand. Christ calls us to love people for who they are now and to call them into a relationship with him, so that they can become who God created them to be. We are all called, called to love, chosen and loved as we are.
We have to start this process with the person we often find the hardest to love of all, ourselves.
So today, you may not have the view that I do sitting here in this blissful place in the centre of the Greek city, which was once the centre of the world, but you do have Christ’s open invitation to enter into that relationship with him wherever you are on life’s journey or however far away from him you feel today- it is a daily offering.
Athens itself is also a stark reminder that Greece is no longer the centre of the world - as it once was, the capital city was already superseded by Rome during Paul’s lifetime, the Roman Empire now faded from glory and so on. Brave generals fight for their countries and empires come and go, but the only true centre is Christ.
God calls you and me today, he has been calling us before time and will be there after it ceases.
May we be centred on Jesus today and anchored in his deep, never ending, everlasting love for us today and every day and so… …Be blessed!
