6 Seasons of CallingExemplo

Called To Work

Like many Christians, I am fascinated by the life of the apostle Paul (also called Saul), the first apostle who was not a part of the original twelve. His story is a proxy for all of us who would come to follow Jesus (and be sent out by Him) after His resurrection. Paul is the first of our kind, called and arrested by the voice of Jesus in a blinding light on a road, while heading somewhere else.

As much material as we have about his life, there are large portions that remain something of a mystery. Between his Road-to-Damascus conversion, his partnership with Barnabas, and eventually their ordination into missionary service in Acts 13, there are few clues as to his whereabouts and developmental journey. Somewhere between his surrender to Jesus (which would change him) and his being sent into his mission (which would change the world), there seems to be a time of growth and development that mirrors our own.

In the book of Galatians, Paul explains that it was fourteen years after his dramatic conversion that he went to Jerusalem. And there, his story, as told in the book of Acts, begins in earnest. Barnabas finds him there, and he brings him to a city called Antioch, presumably to help him finally accept his unique calling to the Gentiles. It is in Antioch where the elders, responding to the Holy Spirit, lay their hands on Paul and Barnabas and send them on what would be the first Gentile mission. It is not an overstatement to say that this ordination would change the world.

Still, what happens to Paul in those fourteen years between his conversion and the fulfillment of this world-altering calling? Something happened in that time which prepared Paul not only for some incredibly brave missionary work but also for the theological revelation and spiritual maturity he would need to be worthy of such an assignment. Perhaps we all need a period of being unremarkable before we are ready to do something worthy of remark.

This is fundamental to life in Day 3. In our late 20s and early 30s, we can suffer a strange cocktail of both delusions of grandeur and debilitating insecurity. We can feel we are meant to be making our mark on the world while also feeling an increasingly desperate sense that we are not doing that at all. Both presumptions are usually wrong.

In this season of Paul’s life, he was being discipled by people (namely Peter and Barnabas) who had known Jesus longer than he had. He was developing a theology of salvation by grace through faith. He was reconsidering the place of the law in the lives of the Gentile world. He was even doing his mission, preaching the gospel to the Gentiles around him. But he was generally serving God in ways that would not be remembered. This perhaps is the most important aspect of this part of our developmental journey: to serve for a while in relative obscurity.

Perhaps we all need a period of being unremarkable before we are ready to do something worthy of remark.

The call of God on those of us in Day 3 is to work and serve as part of a team. In doing so, we learn the invaluable lessons of character, which are unlearnable without submission. Further, our willingness to do anything that is needed results in a flurry of skill acquisition unmatched in any other time in our lives. It is on this day that the healthy soul discovers that Jesus was right—when we lay down our lives, we find them.