Tomorrow is Father’s Day and I wanted to express one important thing that my years of being a husband (38 years) and being a father (36 years) has taught me.
The Bible says that your “calling and gifts are irrevocable,” so what does that mean? All my years in the church, the only time I ever heard a sermon on “our callings” was when they were trying to motivate people to go the mission field in a different country or to seminary to be a church pastor or Bible teacher (all good), but they are only a few of so many callings we have been given from God.
I did not know my calling until I was in my 50’s when the Lord told me I am “a builder.” I want to share this story because when we do not know our calling – it will affect others. I started a men’s group at a church we attended; it started out small and grew to around 40 men attending every week. Men were getting saved and others were being strengthened in their walk with God. Then the Lord laid it on my heart to move on from there and so we began to pray about where we were to go. One night in a prayer meeting the thought came to me about the church Carol and I were to attend. I didn’t even know it existed or what type of church it was, just that the Lord laid its ‘location’ upon my heart.
When I came to that church I thought I was there to do what I had done before in ministering to men and so I told my story to the pastor, and began to meet with the men. Carol and I also joined a “small group” of people our age and found out that they had been praying for someone to build their new church. This church had saved their money and bought the land, had the building plans and were working on the permit with the city. I didn’t want to hear that because I ‘assumed’ God had called me there to minster to men, not to build a building.
After I had been there for two years this building program had moved forward and now they were ready to pull their permit. At this time the pastor had met a developer who had helped other churches in the area get their buildings built on the land he would give them. All he was asking in return was to help him change the zoning for the land he owned so that he could develop it and build their church. The pastor took the offer and moved the church into one of the existing buildings of this developer until the time this man could deliver what he promised. The church sold their existing land and did not complete the permit process. They sold their land for 2 million dollars and the idea was to use it for the new building.
The developer who made these promises went bankrupt and the pastor invested all the church’s money into the stock market without anyone knowing. That market crashed and he lost the 2 million dollars of his people’s hard-earned money. The people were devastated. The pastor was removed from his position and as far as I know he is no longer a pastor of a church. The point of this whole story is that if I would have recognized what I was there to do for that church, which is my calling, the pastor might still be the pastor of that church on the land they had originally purchased for it.
Today when I look at men, I see them searching for their calling in life; the calling that will fulfill them and prosper them, and benefit others. Every calling from God is a high calling. Each has a good purpose in building God’s kingdom.
So this brings me to say to fathers: “You need to look at your children and ask God to help you see their callings for their lives. You need to nurture it, help them understand it and most of all except the truth that it is a high calling from God.” No matter what it is: a builder, an athlete, a chef, a fireman, a police officer, a store-owner, a doctor, a health expert, a seamstress, a home organizer or decorator, a counselor, even an ice-cream truck driver or hot dog stand owner – whatever! The enemy wants us to feel “low” or not “measuring up” to how other people make us feel in comparison, so that we don’t ever learn of our calling and how important it is to God that we fulfill what we are meant to do in life, no matter how insignificant it seems to you or anyone else.
Our calling is never based upon what I can do on my own, but always on what God can do through me, when I surrender.
Happy Fathers Day!
Michael Dietz