Changing careers was hard for me. I'd spent 6.5 years in the ministry, building up skills and a reputation that I had built my identity around. Leaving that behind to start over, in many ways, felt like taking a number of giant steps backward. I have the opportunity to continue to pursue ministry, which I'm immensely grateful for, but there are still plenty of times where I wonder if I made the right decision.
Paul had trained to be a Pharisee since he was a child. It was in his blood to be a Pharisee, and he was really good at it, traveling around to persecute Christians out of zeal for the church.
But when he was called by Christ, he was willing to leave everything behind, because the vision he had of a life in Christ was so compelling that everything else paled in comparison to it. His new identity was so thoroughly defined by who Christ is and what Christ did for him that Paul didn't need anything else -- that was enough. He was willing to follow Christ anywhere because his future was so settled in his mind that nothing could shake that.
The good news for us is that we don't need to change everything to follow Christ. We have to re-order our loves, to recognize that our identity in Christ should re-define everything we do and everything we are. When Christ calls us, Christ often sends us right back into the world from which we are called, but Christ sends us transformed -- confident in the love and grace of God, and certain of our identity in Christ, we go as a people willing to extend unconditional love, offering grace to a world in need of light.
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