What's Your Call Story?

Today is the first day of week five, reading the Bible through together in a year.  Our scriptures for this week are:

• Exodus 1-3; Gal 5
• Exodus 4-6; Gal 6
• Exodus 7-9; Ephesians 1; Psalm 105
• Exodus 10-12; Eph 2;
• Exodus 13-15; Eph 3; Psalm 114

In the Exodus passage, we read about the call of Moses, how God told him to go to Pharaoh and say, "God says, 'Let my people go!'"  What a monumental calling this is!  It's hard to imagine God calling you to such a tremendous task.  God would turn a fugitive-shepherd into a great prophet and leader of a nation.

We tend to think of "call stories" like this one.  Or like Isaiah, who said, "I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple...Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?'  And I said, 'Here am I. Send me (Isaiah 6:1, 8 NIV)!'"

Great and glorious things were done by the prophets of old...but were they the only ones that God called?  No--God calls people from all walks of life to do things great and small.  Just because God hasn't called you to lead a nation or declare His word to kings, that doesn't mean you're not called to do something for Him.

In the first chapter of Exodus, we read about two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, who weren't powerful or influential--but God used them to save the lives of countless Hebrew children.  They remind me of the humble and unassuming Pat Becker, who spoke at our church two Sundays ago and told stories from the Pregnancy Centers of Central Virginia where she works.  Certainly the work of saving babies isn't glorious, but what a contribution to the Kingdom of God!  If you were to ask Shiphrah and Puah the story of how God called them to save those children, they might never say that they saw a burning bush or heard a voice--yet God called them all the same.

Today, I wonder--what's your call story?  How has God spoken to your heart, calling you to something for Him?  Maybe it's not monumental, the way we judge great things.  But God has a purpose for you.  Now the Bible doesn't specifically say that Shiphrah and Puah delivered the baby Moses--yet the Lord does place this narrative immediately before the story of his birth.  It's possible that Moses was one of those babies that they rescued for certain death.  They might have underestimated the impact they made for God--yet look at what that rescued baby would do when he grew up!  Maybe you underestimate the importance of God's call on your life, too.  But whatever it is that God wants you to do--great or small--if you say "yes" to Him, He will use you for His glory.