Listening to God’s Call Provides Insight into His Ways

God has always provided me with a questioning mind.  Sometimes that is a blessing and at other times a curse, especially when others don’t understand why I am doing it.  To them, the matter about which I am asking seems obvious.  The whispered comments I sometimes hear are that I am wasting time and is he that dense?  And at rare times it can be argumentative.  It is not that I don’t often understand, it is that I am looking beyond what the “obvious” is.

My call by God came early in my life after attending St. Mary of the Lake elementary school, graduating and transferring to the minor seminary, Quigley, in Chicago.  I felt God wanted me to be a priest.  Two years later I realized this was not to be my path, but my direction always focused on God being a part of my life just in a different way.  It wasn’t until I was in my 30s that I realized where the journey was heading and it was a time to challenge by beliefs.

I was in a 32-week bible study that covered both the four Major and twelve Minor Prophets of the Old Testament.  We were in the Book of Habakkuk, a 7^th century BC prophet prior to the Babylonian conquest of Judah and capture of Jerusalem.  It was the first time I read about a prophet calling God to account for his rule over the world.  In the same way during an hour ride to work I too was questioning God as to where he was calling me in my life because it didn’t seem to make sense and I didn’t believe I was making any progress in getting closer to God and His ways.

For me, that one hour went by in seconds.  I do not remember the route I drove to work, if I stopped for lights, stop signs or anything else for that matter.  What I did realize at its end was that God answered me in such a positive way that I was excited to be His disciple and was open to whatever journey He wanted to send me on.  His call was not verbal, but more of a thought pattern I could follow to make good decisions.

All of us are called by God to be the disciple He wants us to be from the time we are baptized.  He wouldn’t do so if He didn’t see something in each of us that would fulfill the purpose for which He created us.  He knows and wants us to know that we can make a difference in our life and in others we touch.  He has given us all the gifts and talents we need to accomplish incredible things.  We need to have the faith to trust His call.  And, if you think about it, why wouldn’t you want that from our very creator.  He doesn’t create bad things, only good which makes it possible for us to enter eternal life.

Let us take this week to listen to God’s call to us as He called Samuel in our first reading and to those around us like Andrew who called his brother, Simon, to become a Peter in John’s Gospel.  It offers us an opportunity to make our life so much richer and to be a servant to others as Jesus is to us in all the ways He showed us while here on earth.  Question, if you must, but look for answers that bring God’s insight.    

Reading 1: First Samuel 3: 3b-10, 19
Reading 2: First Corinthians 6: 13c-15a, 17-20

Gospel: John 1: 35-42