We Know Our Call

Browsing through movies the other day, I noticed a theme. Big, Freaky Friday, The Parent Trap, Like Father Like Son, and 13 Going on 30, all considered fan favorites, involve the main character seeing the world from an entirely different perspective.

In most of the movies I’ve highlighted above, characters make a wish and swap bodies. The characters evolve as they come to realize how difficult or stressful things are for the person in the opposite storyline. They move from assuming the other person’s life is easier to realizing that they also carry a bag of worry, stress, and challenges. It’s easier to empathize with their counterpart as they literally walk around in their shoes.

In the movie Big, starring Tom Hanks, Josh, the main character, wishes to be big and wakes up the next morning an adult. We watch with delight as Josh reminds the adults at MacMillan Toy Company that life is about more than earning money. Eventually, Josh misses his family and realizes that being big isn’t as important as he once believed.

In The Parent Trap, a set of twins raised in separate homes by their divorced parents switch lives to learn about the parent they haven’t previously met. They both feel betrayed and let down after missing out on a relationship with their respective non-custodial parent. .

The funniest and most endearing parts of these stories occur when the characters fumble through learning to live in their counterpart’s shoes. Of course, what makes each movie delightful is that the characters learn to appreciate their own lives as well as to respect the person whose shoes they temporarily fill.

As Christians, we have this same opportunity every day, and we don’t have to do anything as ridiculous as swapping lives with a teenager or learning to live on our own in New York. All we have to do is choose to see our fellow global citizens as equally valuable in God’s eyes.

2 Corinthians 5:11-21 says:

Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (NLT, emphasis mine)

Paul breaks down two responsibilities of believers here. First, we work hard to persuade others to follow Christ. Second, we stop evaluating people from a human perspective and see them as God sees them. We know our call.

It’s difficult to hate someone when you walk shoulder-to-shoulder with them and, even more challenging to do so when you remember that they are equal to you in God’s eyes. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth from a position of experience. Paul had hated those who believed in the resurrection of Jesus so much that he oversaw the persecution of the church See (Acts 7:51-8-3).

God had a plan for Paul’s life, though, and an encounter on the road to Damascus in Acts 9 changed everything for him. Paul understood that even though God forgave him for his sins, he was saved by grace. This understanding kept him humble. So humble, in fact, that Paul models for us the ability to love our neighbors without loving their sins in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, which says:

No man has any hold on me, but I have made myself a workman owned by all. I do this so I might lead more people to Christ. I became as a Jew to the Jews so I might lead them to Christ. There are some who live by obeying the Jewish Law. I became as one who lives by obeying the Jewish Law so I might lead them to Christ. There are some who live by not obeying the Jewish law. I became as one who lives by not obeying the Jewish law so I might lead them to Christ. This does not mean that I do not obey God’s Law. I obey the teachings of Christ. Some are weak. I have become weak so I might lead them to Christ. I have become like every person so in every way I might lead some to Christ. Everything I do, I do to get the Good News to men. I want to have a part in this work. (NIV, emphasis mine)

Paul’s point is that when he was in the presence of those who were still under the Law, he respected that and did likewise. When he wasn’t with those who adhered to the Law, he didn’t concern himself with it. Above all, he always placed God’s truth first. So when he encountered people in Lystra who wanted to worship him like their other gods Zeus and Hermes (see Acts 14:8-19) Paul refused to falter from the truth that there is only one true God.

When we know our call, and we choose to live a free life rather than a legalistic life, we can also reflect God’s love as his ambassadors without compromising our commitment to worship only God. Paul didn’t worry if outsiders saw him sitting with Gentiles and judged him for his choice. His concern was loving the people in front of him. He learned this by studying how Jesus lived and doing the same.

We have the same opportunities as Paul to meet people where they are at and see them as God sees them. It may not always feel comfortable. It might look to outsiders like we’re pretending to be someone we’re not, but ultimately, if we follow Paul’s lead and remember that “Everything I do, I do to get the Good News to men” (1 Cor. 9:23 NLT), we only need to concern ourselves with God. As his ambassadors, we know our call.

Will you join me in a new challenge in 2021? Who can you love in 2021 and view God’s viewpoint rather than a human point of view? Who will you empathize with that you previously have chosen to ignore? How will you better love others as God loves you?

Beth Walker is a football coach’s wife and mom of two energetic boys. She strives to encourage those around her to pursue their best lives in Jesus whether she is near the game field, in church, or at the local coffee shop. As a writer, Beth has been striving to find her voice through seeing Jesus in the ordinary and extraordinary of daily life. She blogs at Lessons from the Sidelines.

Photograph © Chan Y, used with permission