God allows name-calling in life

My first day of Pop Warner football practice felt like a total disaster. After doing a few generic drills and running around the park until we were sick, all of the guys came together for our first official team meeting. Instead of giving us an inspirational pep talk, getting us all fired up for the upcoming season, the coach began by saying, “OK, so, who wants to be our running back? Anyone?  Great, you look good! What’s your name?”

Well, after a few minutes of this “unique” coaching technique, we got to the all-important position of quarterback. “Who wants to be our quarterback?” Everyone just looked around at each other, still a little shell shocked that we were putting together our starting line-up as if it were a game of bingo.  Then suddenly I heard the assistant coach yell out, “Chris, Chris— stand up.  Chris, Chris— stand up”. Well, since my name isn’t Chris, I didn’t think too much of it, but after a few minutes, I looked at the coach to see who the heck he was calling. And as I turned around, I noticed he was staring right at me.

I hesitantly pointed at myself, “Me, coach? Um, my name isn’t Chris.  I’m Thomas.” “Whatever,” he said, “Stand up—I want you to be the quarterback.”

And to make a long story short, for the next several years of my life and all the way into high school, I was the quarterback of the team—all because some coach called me out by name (albeit the wrong name), and commissioned me to do and be something I wouldn’t have otherwise. That coach reminds me a lot of God.

Our God, the God who created the heavens and the earth, the God who is angered by the destruction of his creation, and the God who will do whatever it takes to deliver us from the bondage and decay of this world, is a God who hand picks people to partner with him in the great rescue operation.

Think about the stories: Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah, John the Baptist, the 12 disciples, the apostle Paul, etc.  All of these people were selected, anointed and commissioned by God to go out and make the world look and feel like it was supposed to. 

Walter Bruggemann said it best: “God’s call disrupts the lives of settled people, both in biblical times and now. God sends, then and now, to transform the present world— subject to alien powers— into the world God intends. … Thus discipleship and evangelism are not primarily about church membership and recruitment, but an alternative way of being in the world, for the sake of the world.”

Therein lies the key: The God who called all of the men and women we read about in scripture is still calling people today. He is still hand-picking and anointing people to “transform the present world.” 

  Maybe it’s the successful young professional who gives up her six-figure-paying job because God has placed on her heart the desire (albeit “illogical”) to go work in an international ministry she knows nothing about.  Or how about the young college student who began his own nonprofit organization to feed the hungry in Africa because he felt God was leading him to do it (who does that)?

  It might be a call to change your career, your major, your social group or maybe just your perspective, but God has not, nor will he ever, stop calling and sending people out to make the world look, feel and operate more like it was intended it to.

 Having your name be called won’t simply change the trajectory of your football career, it will change the trajectory of your entire life.