The Call (Isaiah 6)

Isaiah 6:1-8

This has been one of the most influential passages in my life and in my personal call to ministry. Isaiah is one of the most celebrated prophets and one of the first to prophesy of the great redemption to come for all people.

I remember first applying for leadership with InterVarsity my first year of my undergrad and being so afraid of and unsure whether or not I was good enough or spiritual enough to be a leader in the community. I knew that I was forgiven and redeemed and beautiful and worthy through the grace of Christ, but was I really forgiven and redeemed and beautiful and worthy? For me, Isaiah's response is not foreign to me. I understand how humbling it is to stand before God in His glory and me in my smallness and brokenness and weakness. Isaiah was quick to understand his own nature and that of God's, but just as quick to receive God's grace and freedom and unashamedly stand before an audience of angels to answer the call of God.

How courageous that seems to me! It is easier to say that I am a broken person and far more difficult to claim without doubt that I have been made clean because my sin nature is still within me and I struggle with it everyday. And yet God's call to us is to believe and embrace our freedom. To everyday say, "the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men*" and so I will live out my life like I am a freed person. I will "say 'no' to ungodliness and worldly passions*" and strive toward a life of righteousness because I have been given the power to be free of these things!

This is what discipleship is. Eugene Peterson calls it, "a long obedience in the same direction." Applying for leadership my freshman year was my way of taking a risk of faith in believing that I was indeed saved and worth it and had the power to live out the lifestyle, although I did not know if I would succeed and it was indeed a difficult year. As a staff worker and vocational minister, everyday I am confronted with this decision of faith. Do I believe. Will I live what I believe. Will I be a person of integrity. Will I try because I believe that it can happen and risk being disappointed because of the reigning brokenness in this world.

As we consider the ministry of gathering and caring and growing Asian Americans on our campus next year, we must start with this question before we can answer His call shamelessly and with confidence. The question of faith and real discipleship and obedience. The questions of "will you serve" and "will you lead" will always bend before the greater question of faith: "Will you follow me?"