A High Calling

Learn from your mistakes! While I was in Alert Bay, we had a new believer's Bible Study. One of those who attended said an incredibly important thing during the discussion period. He reminded us of a past premier of British Columbia. He said, "It was the right place; it was the right job; it was the right time; and he was the right man." He then looked right at me and said, "Arnet, are you the right man." His question has stayed with me this past four years.

As I look back on the Alert Bay experience, I think that it was perhaps the right place (Alert Bay is a wonderful community); I think perhaps it was the right time (the church was failing and would soon close its doors); but, was it the right job, or was I the right man? I pretty much forced myself on the congregation. They could hardly refuse my offer of service, but I was not the right man, nor was it the right job.

The question arises, what is the right job? Jesus, in his discourse, on the return of the Son of Man, said a most reveiling thing: "Be careful! Always be ready, because you don't know when that time will be. It is like a man who goes on a trip. He leaves his house and lets his servants take care of it, giving each one a special job to do" (Mark 13:33-34a).

How do you know what is that special job he has given to you? Jesus' answer is more criptic: we are "Always to be watchful. So always be ready, because you don't know when the owner of the house will come back. It might be in the evening, or at midnight, or in the morning, while it is still dark, or when the sun rises. Always be ready. Otherwise he might come back suddenly and find you sleeping. I tell you this, and I say this to everyone, BE READY!" (Mark 13:34b-37).

I take from this that we must always be alert to the possibility that the job in which we find ourselves is the right job. This is the right place (Heaven belongs to the Lord, but he gave the earth to people-Psm 115:16); it is the right time (You don't know when the owner of the house will come back-Mark 13:35); we can be assured that if we are fully and wholly consecrated unto him we are his servants (He leaves his home and lets his servants take care of it-Mark 13:34b). The question now is not whether it is the right job, but are we watchful enough to recognize the truth? Are we ready?

The high calling of working in the market place demands that we must first be watchful, lest we be found sleeping on the job. Each one of us has been given a special job to do. We must keep our eyes open and be ready to leap at his call and to move at his command. Keep your eyes wide open. Be aware and be ready to move. This could be the day.

Are the failures of our past, simply that-failures, or are they stepping stones on the journey? I like to think that Jesus will not catch me sleeping, but will find me with eyes wide open; my mind tight, and my back straight, ready to do his will. Will I make mistakes? To be sure! But sooner to have taken the risk and lost, than not to have taken the risk at all.

Thomas Edison was once asked how many tries before the light he was working on stayed lit. When he responded 1000 efforts before the last one worked and the light stayed lit, the questioner said, "How discouraging to have failed 999 times." To which Edison replied, "Not one failure, but 999 different ways not to do it again."

It is easier to change direction in a boat in the wind, than a boat stalled in the doldrums. We must be in motion to be steered. So, sail on. Catch the wind. Let Jesus change your directions as you go, sails tight and full.