Unique Discernment

 ¹⁶ “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”-Matthew 20:16


From a blog from the Living Lutheran website:

In the book, “The Song of the Bird,” Anthony deMello writes:

Two brothers heard God’s call to love their neighbor. The older brother went away to serve the poorest of the poor. When a persecution arose he was tortured and put to death. In heaven, God said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

The younger brother stayed home, raised a family and raked his neighbors’ leaves or plowed their snow. He died full of years surrounded by his family. God said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

The older brother observed this and said to God, “If I had it to do all over again, I would still have lived my life just the same for you.”

 Our calls are so different.  We can even hear the same call from God and interpret it differently.  And yet we can all have the "right" answer.  We should not be comparing ourselves to others.  We are created so uniquely!  Not all of us have the gifts and temperament to go off to foreign soil and live our lives serving the poorest of the poor.  But all of us can still love our neighbor in whatever ways God created us to do so.


When we discover how to answer our call... however that is... we will find joy in our life; whether we are to die young as a martyr or live a long life surrounded by family we will have found joy in the call and a full and abundant life.  It is not what we do, but how we do it and the attitude in which we do it.


Father,
Help us to rightly discern our call so that we may serve you and one another with joy and receive abundant life.  Amen.




Joys:  the rush of nostalgia from my childhood from the taste of concord grapes; cool late summer mornings; looking forward to a morning hike