Where God is Calling

This week the church around the world will be celebrating the Holy Trinity and Jesus’ commission that all should “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Four years after graduating from Divinity School, I figured that those words would carry me into a foreign mission field, serving on the margins with the least of these.  And somehow, I still find myself firmly rooted in Cary, NC! 

I came across a commentary when I was preparing for my sermon that struck a chord with me:

“When I was in seminary, it was the “all nations” part of the Great Commission that hit me hardest.  I thought God might be calling me to the mission field on the other side of the globe.  My new husband, also a seminarian, shared my conviction, and so we embarked on some summer mission experiences to test it.  We traveled to parts of Asia, parts of Europe, and eventually parts of Central America.  We listened hard for which of the “all nations” might hold our future; surely one of them would!  Would it be India?  Mexico? Scotland? Speak, God!—we prayed; we are listening and we are ready! 

But no definitive voice came.  The one thing we were sure of, the more we traveled, was that all nations were not necessarily supposed to be our nation; maybe our great commission was not someplace “out there” or “over there.”  Maybe it was here, at home.  Maybe the country to which God was calling us… was already our own.”   (Commentary from Anna Carter Florence).

When I read this, I couldn’t help but think of my best friend who often says to me, “Location doesn’t change things.  You can serve God right where you are.”  So true. So may we see God at work in the closest places (our homes and workplaces), our communities and neighborhoods.  May serve here and now.  May be truly live in the missionary, Jim Elliot’s words, “Wherever I am, may I be there!” 

God’s love and Mine,

danielle kathryn