The Call of Jesus: Will You Go When It Doesn’t Make Sense?

Has God ever stirred your heart to go? To do? To move beyond merely dipping your toe in unknown waters and instead jump in, armed with immovable faith and unshakeable courage?

Come closer and listen in as I share how He recently did this in my family.

Just a few short months ago, my little family of five answered yes to a call from the Lord to get up and go. With a new job waiting for my husband in a different state, we chose bravery and made a faith decision.

The obstacles were numerous. Onlookers questioned why we’d choose bold faith when the cost seemed so high. Selling our house meant taking a financial loss. Moving cross-country with three young girls meant stress. Living in a city where we knew no one meant loneliness. It all seemed scary and wild and brave and strange.

Especially to us.

At times, in the midst of the chaos of the move, my husband and I would laugh and say to each other, “We are crazy! What in the world are we thinking?!” But we knew deep in our bones that God was commanding a get up kind of life change. One that required faith, one that required us to trust we’d be caught in the safety net of God’s will.

It’s not easy to wander into a wide open space, to forge a fresh path into the unknown. To be a bushwhacker when our natural leaning is to be a well-worn path follower. But Jesus came from a lineage of path-forgers. Jesus himself was an entirely new kind of path-forger.

Mary and Joseph, for example, were charged three times in Matthew chapter 2 to get up and go. The miracle of it all? Three times they obeyed. And with their physical obedience, their faith deepened.

“Get up.”

These two words caused a stir that changed the course of history. They were the catalyst that opened the heavens to shine the way to Biblical prophecy fulfilled.

Let’s wonder for a moment at Mary and Joseph. How they willingly accepted the cost of their faithfulness. How they left family and friends and carried the vulnerable Messiah with them to places unknown.

Let’s wonder at Mary’s feelings as she savored the baby Jesus stirring in her womb en route to Bethlehem. She knew at any moment the Christ child would beckon her body to birth God’s greatest gift to mankind. But still, she traveled on.

Let’s wonder at the holiness of that night when they witnessed the birth of their eternal reward because of their earthly obedience.

Let’s wonder at the stirring of any heart to get up and go when it seems strange and uncertain.

Could it be that Mary and Joseph’s bravery doesn’t indicate otherworldly courage, but rather illustrates how they rested upon the eternal perspective we are all meant to share? Knowing that perfect love wins in the end, temporary woes become insignificant in light of God’s plans to redeem His people.

I’ve spent many years wondering at the why of Mary and Joseph’s bravery, until I got my own taste of what it means to live ready for the get up and go. It’s a kind of grace to live from a place of wondering less about the why and instead, tuning my heart to hear the gentle whispers directing me toward a grand adventure with Jesus.

[Tweet “The bravery we long for is wrapped up in the truth we live for.”] The truth is, the eternal perspective exemplified by Jesus’ earthly parents is simply to live as if eternity is real. Heaven and hell are real. And we exist on this beautiful, finite earth for a finite time to fulfill God-ordained assignments that serve His eternal purpose.

Mary and Joseph knew well that God’s plans are bigger. His vision grander. His dreams wilder than anything we could forge on our own. Leaning into that truth led them to forge a new path.

It is when we live from a place of sure faith that we can move from a heart of wondering at the call to get up and go to a heart longing to get up and go.

Dear sisters, let us choose to clothe ourselves with that same eternal perspective. [Tweet “Might you choose to say yes to your own call to get up and go, to forge a new path.”] The God who ordains all of time also ordains the time of your life for His purpose.

You were made to be a brave path-forger. You were made to say yes when it doesn’t make sense to the world. Only God can move us to true bravery that brings Him glory.

Chelsia Checkal is an unashamed dreamer living on grace. A recovering legalist erring on the side of love. A coffee indulger who’d delight in meeting you at a quaint cafe to talk real-life. A messy mom, wife, and free-spirited Jesus girl whose life sings a story of redemption, freedom and hope. Chelsia blogs at movewithhim.blogspot.com.

 

Photograph by David Mark.