Called of Jesus Christ

 

Romans 1:6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;

Have you ever had a calling on your life? Not just an interest, not just something you like to do, but something akin to an obsession of the mind, body, and spirit? Computers are my thing. I have always loved solving puzzles and problems, ever since I was a little boy, and like most guys I know, gizmos and gadgets have always held an attraction for me. I can remember the first computer that my family ever owned quite clearly. In his middle years my father put himself through night school to learn how to fix refrigeration units and do HVAC work. I was a teenager at the time and when his business began to grow to the point that he couldn't keep track of things on paper efficiently anymore, he ended up laying out I don't know how much money for a Tandy 1000SL computer from Radioshack. That thing was amazing. He paid the extra money and bought the unit that came with two 5 1/4" floppy disk drives, and 512kb of RAM. I loved that thing. Of course there was no internet as we know it back then, it was mostly dial up BBS's and message boards - we didn't own a modem because the business had no need to dial in to BBS's at the time - but we did have a fantastically loud and slow Dot Matrix printer.

I remember well the first computer game I got for that old machine. It was the original Rogue dungeon crawling game, with ASCII graphics and randomly encountered monsters and treasures, both good and bad. I spent hours on that machine fiddling around, playing games, teaching myself BASIC (I never was very good at programming on there, but I had a blast playing with it and learning), writing stories on the simple word processor program and playing with MS-DOS. I was drawn to it, both mentally and physically. When I grew older and encountered various other computers and technology in school I could always feel a pull towards reaching for more, almost a greed for understanding how these things functioned.

It wasn't until I was in college my first time around that I encountered the Internet and understood the power of connectivity between computers and how they could make something that was in sum total greater than the parts that created it. I eventually dropped out of college in 1999 after I married Angela, but I remained fascinated and pulled to computers and all things computer tech. When I went back to tech school in 2006, I went for a degree in network administration. It was like an unscratchable itch inside me that I just had to keep reaching for every chance I got. Any time I came across something new, something I'd never encountered before or only heard rumors about, I had to take it in and understand it. Along the way between runs at education, I'd taught myself to tear computers apart and rebuild them, how to fix most virus issues that I encountered, and understand how to get them to work together. I just couldn't stop, no matter how tired or frustrating a problem was, no matter how broke or distracted I became, I've always been drawn to these things that now run most of our world.

This has often equated to teaching others how to use the confounded things, or helping them when they've had problems. I've always been that friend that 'knows computers', the family IT guy. When all things computer stop working right, I usually get the call. I can't count how many people I've taught about computers, how they work, how to use them, how they're built, or just discussed computer tech with the curious or interested. It is something that is buried within me and part of who I am. It is a calling on my life, but not the most important calling, by far!

Paul speaks here in this verse to the Romans of a calling of Jesus Christ - very specifically of Jesus, not by Jesus. This evokes an understanding that the calling that we are under is both external (Come here right now!) and internal (I've just GOT to do this or I'll never have any peace!). It's easy to pass over this verse without realizing that this is Paul's way of notifying us that not only have the gates of Heaven have been opened to all, but that for those of us who have come to believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we have a calling both inside and outside ourselves to live as Jesus did - loving God and loving others, meeting needs and showing them the love of God through our ministry to them. I don't purport to have all the answers to all the big questions about the who, what, when, why, and how of the universe. What I do know is that I have a calling on my life that, when I am in my lowest moments of need or my highest moments of happiness, that drives me to thank God for my blessings and to be loving and kind to others, sharing those blessings with them.

The blessing of this message from Paul to me directly is that I am loved enough for Jesus to have put that calling on my life, that desire to share the wealth of God's love with others through not just my words, but also through my thoughts and deeds. I am a much better man because of this calling on my life, and I praise God wholeheartedly for it!

My Prayer

Lord, I thank you for this day and the calling you have on my life. I pray that in my brokenness, in my weakness, that your strength is made whole and powerful in the calling on my life. I pray that this word touches a heart and eases the burden of all who read it. Help me to minister to those in need, to love those I meet, and to share the gospel news of Jesus to all who will hear. May I ever be your humble servant lord, and a servant of the lost, so they too may experience the joy of being called and the wonders of the discovery of your love. In the powerful and mighty name of Jesus I pray, Amen.