Today we have a special guest blog post from our friend Karol Bartlett.
A few weeks back, a call came into the convent hotline from a woman who had a very real concern that she might have missed God’s call. I remember laughing when I read that was going to be one of the topics for that week’s edition of Ask Sister. I laughed because my immediate response was and for the most part still is – “Don’t worry – God will call back!” After all – God always calls back, one way or another!
But here it is several weeks after that podcast, and I am still thinking about the topic! The God that I have come to accept in my life will always call back. That said, I am also my own answering machine, and after checking the caller ID feature, I often let calls – from real telephones and those that come more spiritually – go to my answering machine because I don’t want to deal with whoever and whatever the call is about. The problem is that at some point I have to listen to those calls or choose to pick-up and take some kind of action.
God knows that I can find a million and one things to do to avoid listening for the call – no matter how or when that call comes to me. But God also knows how to get through to me anyway in one of those million and one things I find to do. For me, the important thing is not to fear that I have somehow missed God’s call but to accept that I have chosen to miss quite a few of those calls! The action for me, then, is to cherish the call I do listen to and let that call become a defining moment in my walk forward in life. For me, those defining moments are the palette of paints that is God’s gift of the ever-developing painting of me and how I live in Gods world.
God doesn’t give up just because I have missed a call. If anything, God has found ways to reach me when I thought I was really unreachable! God’s call can come to me while I walk in the park and hear the small voice of a Ruby Crowned Kinglet or boom at me via the thunder that happens immediately after the flash of lightning that tells me the storm is “right over you!” God has found a way to get through to me without having to go through the telephone, and worse, the answering machine!
Feeling like you missed God’s call? Ask yourself if you are open enough to “hear” it and trust that God will call back.
Archived Comments
- March 24, 2011 at 8:28 am
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KBart, Thanks for a great post & a great analogy! Sometimes there is anxiety when you see who’s calling & even when you answer, you’re still not sure how to feel… then (if you’re anything like me) a few minutes on the phone with God and it’s like no time has passed at all, you can just be at home with one another. You just have to remember that it takes some time answering the call before all the pieces fall into place.
- March 24, 2011 at 9:16 am
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Great post, KBart! I try and hear God through everyday sights and sounds as well. Something as simple as a furrowed field or a trickling stream can bring me thoughts of God and His message. All any of us has to do is open our hearts and our minds to it. God is more diligent than even the most tenacious bill collector.
- March 24, 2011 at 1:07 pm
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Hey LeeAnn and Colleen, thanks for your thoughts. Someone told me a long time ago that if I didn’t know what to say or what to do that it was ok to take a breath, pause. That by doing so there will be an answer in the quiet. And sometimes within that quiet, you will hear the loudness of the answer.
- March 24, 2011 at 3:52 pm
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Terrific post, Kbart! I recall (no pun intended) times when I so wished God would just lose my phone number or get tired of hitting the redial. I think God calls us in so many different ways — when we pick up the phone, it’s the right time to answer the call
- March 25, 2011 at 8:37 am
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lol Oh I love that description that you are the answering machine ! don’t you love conversion stories of people who did answer even if really late in life .like when I read of those conversions of people 90yo it is so awesome. He is always there at all times. so beautiful I love lent because it just seems a time when we figiure this stuff out , then of course do it all over again next yr because yes we do forget to turn that answering macine on sometimes Thanks so much for this post
- March 30, 2011 at 10:57 am
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Thanks for your post K-bart ~ it is so relatable! It reminds me of how often I do not want to answer the telephone or God’s call because I make an assumption about who will be on the other end or what will be asked of me. Well, you know what they say about assumptions! OOPS! lolol
One thing that I know for sure; when God calls she always sends to grace to live out that call, whatever it may be. So, whenever I choose to answer the call, I will have what I need to live it out!
- April 3, 2011 at 8:49 am
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Cool post KBart! =) If there’s one thing i’ve learnt over the last few months, God is EXTREMELY persistent.. And He’ll keep calling till you finally realise that resistance is futile….
