The Two Calls

When we read the call stories of the Scripture, it seems that those called were already on board with a relationship with God.  Certainly, this is the case with Abraham, or Moses, or Isaiah.  None of those three were of the heathen, or pagan category.  Somewhere before the moment of calling came, they had decided for God.  It may be that way for most, but not for everyone.  When we come to the Damascus Road experience of Saul of Tarsus, it would seem that there was no space between him hearing the call to follow Jesus and to serve Him in a specific way.    

I remember that primordial spiritual experience of my faith journey.  I heard Jesus saying, "Follow me," and the call to  preach in such a sequential manner that there seemed to be no space between them.  In fact, I actually separated the two in the moment.  I said "Yes" to the call to follow Jesus, but "No" to he second part of the spiritual proposition being presented.  It would take nearly a half a year to come around to the second Word from God heard that night.  But, the fact is one was a part of the other.   

It should not surprise us that Christ's call to follow Him would be accompanied by a sense that He has something specific in mind for us to be about.  When Paul was overwhelmed by the power of Christ on the Damascus Road, it was not for him one or the other, but both.  As he got up from the ground and waited on Ananias, he surely must have come to know that the call to follow and the call to serve were inseparable.  In reality, the same is true for all of us.  He does not call us to follow Him so we can make a spiritual status statement, but because He has something in mind for us to do within the work of the Kingdom.