When God Calls Your Name

When I was about twelve years old, it seemed like God called out my name. It was not an audible voice, but He spoke to me through another young boy who asked me if God had called me to be a pastor.  I knew that God had used an eleven year old Gary to talk to me that day.  In 1980 the church licensed me, and then the following year ordained me to pastor a struggling country church. God has not often called me out of a burning bush like he did Moses, but He did speak to me through some very trying circumstances. Sometimes it seems like I hear His voice most clearly in those moments when I least expect it.

Peter Marshall was a popular preacher in the 1940's and 1950's, pastoring in Washington, DC.  He served two terms as the United States Chaplain.  He grew up in Scotland and one day as a young boy Peter walked the road to a friend’s house who lived some distance away from him. He lost track of time and suddenly realized it was soon going to be dark outside.  To save time, he took a short-cut across the open fields.  Lost and terrified in the darkness, Peter began to run. Suddenly he thought he heard a voice call his name, "Peter!" He ran even faster. Again the voice called, "Peter!" Turning to see who was calling as he ran full speed ahead, he stumbled and fell to the ground. Reaching out front to lift himself up, Peter’s hands touched nothing but air. Suddenly he knew where he was . . . at the edge of an old stone quarry. A few more steps and he would have fallen to his death. Peter Marshall always felt God had saved his life for a divine purpose by calling out to him that day! In some mysterious way that ground in Scotland became holy ground to Peter.

Sometimes God has strange ways of getting our attention. We're just moving along in life, minding our own business, everything is going normally. . . and then something happens that just doesn't fit into our plans. Something happens that doesn't make sense. Something happens that we simply can't figure out. And then, if we are listening, God has our attention.

When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” (Exodus 3:4)

Moses was simply doing his job that day when God came to talk with him out of an ordinary bush that became extraordinary.  Isn't this how God reaches out to us, too? It would be nice for us to think that we all hear the voice of God mainly in the church house! But God speaks to us everywhere, not just in church. And sometimes God can reach us most powerfully when we are simply going about our day-to-day tasks; when we are simply doing our job. Because in church, we expect there to be a lot of talk about God and heaven and hell and all that stuff. And we tend to think that the rest of our lives out there in the work world are somehow more distant from God's presence, but that is just not true.

When God spoke to Moses that day, Moses did not want the job that God wanted him to do.
After all he could easily have rationalized, “I’m 80 years old; let the young people do this job!”  We are not that different from Moses. We may make excuses, too, when we have a plan in mind for our life and God tells us to do something else. We may have had it all figured out as to what we were going to do with our life that day. And all of a sudden God throws a monkey wrench into our plans. When that unexpected event happens; when things just don't go the way they were supposed to; when something happens that is just plain strange, listen for God's voice calling your name.  You too will be glad you responded when He calls your name.

Al Yoder