During the world-wide quarantine, one of the biggest things that I’ve been seeing on social media and hearing from friends, is the negative change of dynamics inside the home.  Humans are creatures that seem to have a need to complain.  As much as they love their kids, parents are being driven crazy by them, and ready to tie them up with duct tape.  As humorous as we make it, yes, we are all cooped up inside, and this is changing the way we live our day-to-day lives.  I hear how parents have been struggling in the cooking department, thinking that they have exhausted their ideas for meals.  Kids have become bored with the “confinement” that they are forced to comply with.  They are ready to go back to seeing their friends, being social, and hanging out.  Some parents are struggling with getting children to obey during this time.  The struggle is real. 

            Those of us who don’t have children, those of us who are single- we also have a directive.  Our own governments have put in place rules to follow during this pandemic.  Although it is for our benefit, and society as a whole, we struggle to live by guidelines because we feel justified in our own actions.  One might begin to think, “am I really going to get the virus just by doing this?”  We have a tendency to bend the guidelines when we feel it isn’t going to hurt anyone.

            Single, married, married with children, divorced, widowed, etc. we all alike have to come face to face with what obedience means.  It is something nobody likes to talk about, something nobody really likes to hear.  But what does it really mean to obey?  We like it when others obey us.  But what happens when others expect us to obey them?  More than that, what happens when the Lord expects us to obey Him?

            What does it mean to truly obey?

            I want to sift past the usual.  I’m not going to talk about “Thou shalt not kill,” and other things listed in the Ten Commandments.  I’m not even going to get into “Love your neighbor as thyself.”  What I want to focus on today is listening to the calling God has on your life.  That in a nutshell, may be the single most difficult thing for some people to heed.  During a world crisis like we are living in right now, it might be the most important time to do so.            

            I recently have been reading the account of God’s calling on Abraham’s life.  There are so many things that stand out, so many things that one could bring up to talk about.  One could easily write more on Abraham’s journey with God.  But specifically, I want to focus on Abraham’s calling itself.  Of course his name was Abram at the time.

Genesis 12:1-3

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

            How can one honestly look at those scriptures and not think how incredibly difficult it would have been for Abram to listen to the Lord?  Really?  Leave your country? Are you serious?  Pick up and leave your hometown?  Leave your extended family? Friends?  How hard would it be to one day hear the voice of a God that you might not have even known about yesterday, and all of a sudden give Him the respect and revere Him as you should?  Had he known about the Lord prior to this?  Did he leave other false gods behind to focus solely on the Lord?  There are a million questions one could come up with and ask.  It would be easy to justify Abram in his situation if he chose not to obey.  I’m sure his city/town/family would have thought he was a crazy man. How could they not?

            Does it take a certain quality inside us to obey?

            I’ll be honest.  I find it hard during this time of quarantine to listen to what we are told to do.  Stay home.  Wear a mask. Stay six feet away from others. We all have bent the rules some, to one degree or another.  Have you really followed the rules of quarantine to the exact measure of the government’s decree?  It is really hard.  We are made to be social.

            But… there may be a tremendous opportunity wrapped in the package of a Covid-19 quarantine gift box.  Let me explain.

            We are home.  We have the incredible opportunity to press into the Lord and seek Him, truly desiring to hear what He desires, and His calling on our lives. Could it be that God is teaching us how to listen in these days?  Could it be that he has given you the space and the time to focus on what it is He has called you to do and begin to follow it?

Genesis 12:4-5a

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.

            We also learn from the book of Hebrews that Abraham had great faith to not only obey God for what He had said, but believe that it would happen.

Hebrews 11:6-10

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God

            Seeing that it is possible to listen and obey the Lord by the examples like Abraham who have gone on before us, I want to challenge you today.

            What is it that you feel the Lord has been calling you to do?  What is it that you have put off, maybe for years, not quite comfortable enough in your own skin to reach out and try to do?  Is there something that God has called you to do or be as an individual, has supplied you with all the means to accomplish it, but you are still unwilling to follow Him?  In this quarantine time, when our out-of-home tasks and responsibilities have been put on hold, could you use this paused moment to begin to fulfill your calling? Instead of going to your workplace or school (which is most likely shut down for now), could you step out in faith and do that act or that blessing that might even seem small to you but is huge to others? 

            We have absolutely no concept of how far a simple act of obedience can go when it is used by hand of the Lord.  It is impossible to confine the infinite creative ability God has to a finite mind like ours.  God can take one small step of obedience and turn it into an infinite span of blessings for others.  We simply have no idea.

            Has there ever been a more open-to-receive moment in history as the one we are currently living in?  

            Is God calling you to be an encourager? Ask Him how to encourage. Send cards to those who are in nursing homes, confined without visitors.  They are hurting.  There is a huge need.  

            Are you being called to teach?  You can help tutor kids via internet video chats who are struggling to understand their math homework.  God might even open the door for you to teach something of your faith as well.  Teaching is a calling that is desperately needed.  The younger generation needs to know their scripture. Many of them don’t, and church buildings are closed.  

            Do you feel called in sewing?  Could you make masks?  The world can’t fulfill its own need for them. There is a great demand.  

            What about making cookies?  God may be calling you to bake.  Our church (Lifespring Christian Church) teamed up this week with my sister in-law Nikki Carr (Facebook Link) and Charley’s Family Owned Shop-n-Save to pass out baked goods to local hospitals.   Nikki has a business called Lone Oak Pastries and makes cookies and pies. Doing something she loves to do, the church was able to be the hands and feet of Jesus to those in the Excela Health Hospital Network.  What a tremendous opportunity.  Would you ever thought that baking or donating cookies and passing them out could be a ministry?  

            The list of ideas is endless.  

            Can you fix cars?  Can you shop groceries for someone elderly that can’t get out easily?  Could you help wipe down things purchased so the receiver isn’t infected with Covid-19?  

            Obedience- heeding the call, is something we all need to take a deep look into right now.  In a moment when most of us are grumbling at the situation we are in, we could be looking inward, at ourselves, and listening to God. Instead of complaining about being confined, we can ask how this confinement is an opportunity to serve. It isn’t a small need.  It is a global need.  The possibilities are endless.  It is a global moment that Christ can be passed out by His own.  Can we be there for the world in need?  There may have never been a greater time than this.  We are living in a moment when each one of us can use our God-given skills and abilities to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

            There is no telling what God can do with the heart that obeys Him.

            Will you heed the call?

By Chuck Carr