Life Shaping Words

I have remembered the words for over 45 years. I spoke them again last Sunday at a gathering at the Rocky Ford Church. Joe Bridges, a District Superintendent, said them while preaching a Quarterly Conference worship service at the Alamo Church. I was not quite 18 years of age. "If you see a need, know you can do something about that need, and do nothing, you may be neglecting the call of God on your life." By the time I got through processing those words on that particular evening, I knew I was hearing a call to preach. To be honest is to confess I did not like what I was sensing in my heart even though I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what I was hearing.

Most all of us can remember some life shaping words spoken over our life at some unexpected moment. They may not have sent us into the ministry, or to a mission field, but they, nonetheless, had shaping and defining power. Sometimes our life is shaped by our acceptance of the words and sometimes, it is shaped by our refusal to acknowledge that a word is indeed from God. When heard, these life shaping words can be a crossroad kind of moment where there are two roads to be taken.

I wonder what words you remember in such a way. What are the words which have had power over your past as it was being turned into your future? If remembering stirs some regret, it is good to know God may still be waiting with patience for us to acknowledge that He has spoken a Word over us which still requires some action of obedience.