The Big Squeeze

There may not be as many pages in the book of Amos as there are in Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Ezekiel, but his voice thunders across the the centuries with reverberating power.  Unlike the Big Three, Amos was a second career spiritual leader and prophet.  In the seventh chapter of the book bearing his name, we hear him saying, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, 'Go, prophecy to my people Israel.' " (Amos 7:14-15)    

Not all of us start out with a sense of being called, either to ministry or to some specific act of ministry.  Like Amos we do not carry a credentialing card, or have a wall full of divinity degrees.  We are not into the role of spiritual leadership.  Some may count it important to have some certifying papers for service, but God does not.  Amos was into agriculture and content with it when God called him out of the quietness of that calling into the noisy world of religious systems gone awry.  It surely must have been a difficult transition for him to make.   

The good news in the story of the calling of Amos is that God calls us when we figure we are way past such a thing happening.  We never get to a place where what we can do for Him has no value.  This is true not because we remain so sharp, or have become more spiritual, but because He has put in us from conception something which is valuable and important to the Kingdom.  Before we make it Home, it is surely His intention to squeeze it all out.