GodReflection: When God Calls

I am close to the end of Timothy Keller’s book, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. By the way, this is one of those books everyone needs to read to understand how to better navigate our life’s walk.

Prior to the close of Chapter Thirteen in a section titled Everything Hangs Together, Keller gives this profound insight:

Very seldom do we glimpse even a millionth of the ways God is working all things together for those who love God.

In my previous post I described to the best of my understanding the circumstances that led to my call to the South American country, Brazil.

For eight years in the metropolitan city of São Paulo I thrived at the center of my designated gifts: to build and to create. Those skills allowed my contribution to make God and His Son Jesus known to a small portion of that great city.

The Brazil years built upon my preparation years and flowed into what became my life’s work.

At the end of our eighth year, acute medical needs of a new born son called our family back to the states. Assignments at two universities and further academic training paralleled what evolved into three decades of the recruitment, preparation and placement of missionary teams in the great capital cities of Brazil and other South American nations.

In hindsight Timothy Keller’s perception into God’s call and guidance upon our lives is humbling to say the least.

It is true that, very seldom do we glimpse even a millionth of the ways God is working all things together for those who love God.

That statement could not ring truer as I reflect upon God’s call on our lives.

My years of doing spanned four decades. As they drew to a close I once again perceived God’s direction. Body degeneration caused by age was on the near horizon. It was obvious soon I would lack the physical stamina to keep pace with evolving demands. It was time to look toward my final stage of life. I’ve tagged this time of life as the time to be.

Over the first two decades of my life my call was to prepare. It was a time to learn and to move in the direction of maturity.

Over the next four decades my assignment was to do. Creativity and activity filled the agenda. It was over this timeframe when I began to get a sense of what it meant to trust God.

Time after time with fear and trepidation God would take me to the edge of the cliff then ask me to step into the unknown. Little by little He built my faith for this final stage of life, the call to be.

I’m now in the eighth year of my call to be. When asked what I do, I sometime jokingly reply I spend my time in preparation for finals. The truth is my current homework is not done in anticipation of standing before a pass or fail judge.

The years of preparation and the years of doing were all foundational for my call to be. I find my current place along the trail to be a time of reflection. It is a time to let the good and the important rise to the top and a time to allow the irrelevant and the petty evaporate from life’s concerns.

In my first blog post of 2012 as I began this final stage of my earth walk I stated my call to be in the following words:

It is now the time of my life to focus upon being. To reflect upon being is to reflect upon God. I will still learn and do, but my major focus as I see the sun moving toward the horizon, is to be.

I am going to try to be bold and allow you to look over my shoulder while I attempt to look into my own heart and mind as I reflect on God in anticipation of moving toward my own life’s finish line.

There is a deep longing in my soul to reflect on God and his desire that I experience his ultimate and eternal good. I want to know God more and more as a friend because I believe that is how God wants to know me.

As the sun is now lower on the horizon of my life I remain committed to honor that call.
I would love to hear your insights into God’s call upon your own life.

Stay tuned.

Dr. Gary J. Sorrells

A GodReflection: Called to Be

Gary@Godreflection.org
http://www.GodReflection.org
http://www.MakeYourVisionGoViral.com