The Calling | Ed’s Inspirations

Living in a small town in BC 52 years ago was somewhat idyllic. In summer I worked at the raspberry processing cannery and the evenings and nights after work were exciting and much anticipated. We often had a corn roast on an island in the middle of the river. Let the party begin, we were no sons of God. Mostly we weren’t looking for anything, just fun. We were youth. I had put God on a shelf, and well, I thought He would fit….little did I know. The beauty and impulse of youth allowed us to cover our poverty and bereftness. Not many 16 year olds are very aware of the rhythms of internal life, myself included.

One night I recall leaning my back against a log on the sand away from others and away from the fire. I felt a shiver as moist, cool air moved down the trench of the river. A bigger chill, perhaps a thrill, came as I heard the clear velvet sound of a trumpet in the far distance. It was like I had woken from a dream. The sound of Amazing Grace and This Is My Fathers World reached my ears but more importantly my heart. It was a beautiful sound, a wordless note, but a clarion of truth that was carried by the Holy Spirit into my heart across the sounds of laughter from my people. I know that now, I wasn’t too aware of God’s ways back then. As youth gains experience, we can look back and recognize the call to transcendence and Who was behind that call. In my case it took a few more years.

I knew this man who played the trumpet. He was a good man, my Dad’s contemporary and part of our church community. I remember him as a kind, somewhat diminutive guy that had a gentle demeanor. But it was 1am, what in the world possessed him, responsible men and women were sleeping. He was also a peculiar man, even eccentric. Why was he there...what was he doing?

Today I know it was the heart of a man doing a nightwatch. A call to send a battalion of angels to oversee and protect our little town. A clarion call to rally the saints to prayer, to give voice to the Holy Spirits impulse in the saints there. This was a one man stand to keep himself from spiritual sleep. To come out, to declare and elicit a holy longing. It was a hymn of surgery asking for courage for the saints to declare the great Lamb of God with healing, mercy and restoration in his heart for us. This was the heart of a strong man, and today, I know how we needed strong men and women back then. No small town is exempt from deception or from tragedy. Today we still need men and women of courage who display mercy and live out justice, who point to the Truth. 

What songs play in your head? What are the voices you listen to? What do you want to hear as you walk through the corridors of your life, as you walk through the halls of your house? Have you followed a path that maintains the status quo? Have you like me sometimes lost your way? I am acquainted with this pattern. Consider these ancient words that declare a plumbline, that orient ourselves to justice. Consider the words of Jesus as He quotes from 

Isaiah 61:1-2, NLT: “The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favour has come.

-Would we consider bringing the good news of the gospel daily rather than pessimism and negativity. Haha, not even on the same level, the good news of the gospel is telling of a beautiful God who has betrothed Himself to us, who has mercy and forgiveness for people in disastrous  ruins. About a God who has thrown our sin across a gulf that can never be bridged. Who can condemn us?  No one! New mercies every day!

-Would we consider peacemaking instead of being right? It’s hard to make concessions. Are we teachable? 

 -Would we consider being lovers rather than devoted to our beliefs? Beliefs are important but our walk of love (or not) in the moment reveals our true belief.

-Would we consider being reconcilers rather than dogmatists. 

-Would we consider bringing hope to others. Hope in the person we know to be compassionate, forgiving, and merciful. Hope in the Truth (Jesus), not in our circumstances or the reality of the forces that surround us. The Truth that brings freedom and release from bondage.

-Would we consider encouraging(bringing courage) to others, to help them by bearing burdens. 

Can we say the Spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon us? Has the Lord anointed us to bring good news to the poor?  When you hurt, I hurt. Do we hear and see one another,  walk alongside those in our purview. I think it’s a place to aim for. We can bank our lives on the pillar of His goodness, His faithfulness. The gospel of Jesus is the true life, the reality of our existence is based on a person and what a person!!

-Ed