What Happens After the Call?

Have you ever ventured onto the high dive at your local pool? If you have, you’re not afraid of heights or water, but how about that space in between? The space between jumping and landing.

This depicts our faith journey, as well. We can exist at our starting point even if things are less than ideal – our past, pain, questions, struggle, or the need to move forward. We can see a future where things are different and life makes more sense. We see growth, change, greater impact, and purpose. We’re even okay with temporary discomfort.

So, what stops us from acting in faith?

• Uncertainty – We can’t see a clear path from here to there.
• Loss of Control – We can’t control the sequence, direction, or pace of events between here and there.

This is what puts us in a place of uncertainty and loss of control, and despite our faith in God, many of us experience great discomfort with the gaps.

Jumpers and Waiters
We talk a lot about faith and taking faith-filled risks, stepping out for God, and, at the same time, still waiting on God. These two things seem to be at odds. So, which is it? When do we wait? When do we move?

To answer this, you need to ask yourself if you’re a jumper or waiter.

Jumpers are the ones who run ahead, while waiters are the ones who hesitate to move. The problem is that you can spiritualize both. Many of us have stood on the high dive of life, facing a gap looming before us. How do we respond? What do we do next?

Thankfully, we’re not alone in our struggles with facing the gaps in our lives. We have God. Consider the story of Abram. Abram was a wealthy, successful man, with generational wealth and a very comfortable life. Yet his wife Sarai is barren. Abram receives a call from God.

Genesis 12
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

God promises a destination and descendants but hasn’t shown how either of these are going to happen. God asks Abram to abandon his home for a promised, but unseen new home. This isn’t like moving to a new state. God is unknown to these people. If the promise is to come to pass, it will be supernatural and require a LOT of faith.

For you, it may not be as dramatic, but God calls us to leave comfortable places and to follow Him in faith. To wait on Him, depend on Him, then walk with Him.

We want God to speak, explain, and guarantee before we obey. All we get before we need to obey is God speaking, with His reveal coming after we obey. This is what faith is all about.

Hebrews 11
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

God Speaks After We Move
Genesis 12
7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

How does God call you into the gap?

• Out of a place of strength into a place of weakness – God rarely truly works from our strengths unless we’ve been humbled first.
• Out of a place where we feel big into a place where we feel small, and God has to be big.
• Out of a place of control into a place of uncertainty. Walk towards our fears, not away, where we must release our control rather than try to keep it.
• Out of a place where we’re defined by accomplishing into a place where we’re defined by following. Abraham was a self-made man of high status. He became a nobody when he followed God.

What’s the gap in your life that God is calling you into?

• Maybe you already feel like you’re in the middle of it.
• Maybe you’re standing on the edge of it, getting ready to take that first step, whether big or small.
• Maybe you’re trying to figure out what to do next.

How do you know your gap is from God?

If what God is calling you to doesn’t require Him, it’s not from God. You either need to act or wait. Remember that God calls us to step out in faith, but also wait on him (Jumpers vs. Waiters).

What do you struggle most with? Finding courage or relinquishing control? If you don’t know, ask your spouse or a friend. Both are about facing fear. Fear of the unknown or fear of uncertainty.

We need to lean toward our biggest struggle (act vs. wait) and away from our most familiar impulse.

For the waiters, act. There is no bigger enemy of courage than comfort. Uncertainty doesn’t disappear before the first step of the journey, it only disappears looking back.

For the jumpers, wait. Faith is moving in God’s direction, but sometimes waiting is God’s direction. If your direction is premature action, it’s the opposite of God’s direction.

Remember, it’s all about having faith in the right places, before, during, and after the call. Many of us had heard about the importance of having faith in Jesus, but did you know that Jesus has faith in you too?

He chose you for the gap that’s in front of you. He chose YOU. Who you are and where you are. He’s with you. You are His best plan to impact the world. You are His first choice.