A High Calling

In my devotion time yesterday, the Lord told me to read Lamentations 5. I was thinking, "Really, Lord? Lamentations? What a depressing book." But you know, even when I am reading something that doesn't seem very uplifting, God always shows me something. What He showed me this time actually came from one line in the commentary at the bottom of the page. Here's what it said: "A high calling flouted by low living results in deep suffering." When I read that I actually gasped a little. What a profound statement!

I looked up the definition of the word "flouted" and this is what it said: To treat with disdain, scorn, or contempt; scoff, mock, or gibe. So, to expand even further, I looked up the other words in this definition.

1. Disdain: a) a feeling that a person or thing is beneath one's dignity and unworthy of one's notice, respect, or concern. b) to look upon or treat with contempt.

2. Scorn: a) contempt or disdain felt toward a person or object considered despicable or unworthy. b) the expression of such an attitude in behavior or speech; derision.

3. Contempt: a) disapproval tinged with disgust. b) the feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior, base, or worthless. c) the state of being despised or dishonored; disgrace. d) open disrespect or willful disobedience of the authority of a court of law or legislative body.

4. Scoff: a) to mock at, or treat with derision. b) to express insolent doubt or derision, openly and emphatically.

5. Mock: a) to treat with ridicule or contempt. b) to imitate; counterfeit. c) to frustrate the hopes of; disappoint. d) simulated; false; sham.

6. Gibe: a) to make taunting, heckling or jeering remarks.

Wow. It's no wonder that statement hit me so hard! If I was living my life with any one of those attitudes it would indeed cause deep suffering. We all have a high calling. The Lord has called each and every one of us to live for him, and to tell others about him as well. Some people might seem like they have this huge calling on their lives. For example, certain TV evangelists, preachers, authors, musicians, etc. Looking at their lives might make us feel at times like our calling is nothing compared to theirs and, therefore, isn't that high (big.) The truth of the matter is, just because you aren't on the cover of a magazine, or your song isn't #1 on the music charts, doesn't mean you don't have just as high of a calling on your life, if not higher!

If we live our lives with contempt towards the Lord for things that have gone wrong, or out of jealousy over someone else's life, then we are going to be absolutely, 100% miserable. Not only because we are making ourselves and everyone around us miserable, but because God cannot bless an attitude like that. He knew you before you were even born! He knows the end of your life from the beginning. He obviously had a purpose in creating you, or why would he even have bothered? Just the simple fact that you were created by a loving and merciful God who thought enough of you to put you on this earth is reason enough to live by a much higher standard than the one the "world" lives with.

I know there are days when we all have those moments of doubt about why we were even created. The days when we feel worthless, when we think we've sinned to much to be forgiven, when our goals and dreams have fallen apart, when we've been rejected, when even the Lord has turned his back on us (or so it may seem.) What the Lord is saying in the book of Lamentations is that we still have hope, no matter how great our sin, no matter what we've done. He will never abandon us. God may have turned his back on the people of Jerusalem because of their sin, but he did not abandon them. That was their great hope! Despite their sinful past, God would restore them if they turned back to him. True hope is found in God alone, and no matter how much we've messed up, we need to turn toward him, not away from him.

Micah 7:18-19 says, "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea."

I love that it says God will "hurl" all our sins into the depths of the sea. To me, that means that he will throw them with a passionate throw into the sea of forgetfulness and remember them no more. He's not going to hold on to "that one little sin" to hold over our heads. No, it says he will hurl ALL our sins into the sea. He doesn't want us to hold on to them. He wants us to repent and hand them over to him so that he can get rid of them forever and set us free.

My friends who are reading this, I want to leave you with a quote that my pastors, Steve and Sharon, use all the time. It's simply, "Shame off you!"