Why I'm a United Methodist, Part 4

When I was 8 years old, my church had a revival.  The 3rd night was designated as "Youth Night" and after the sermon, the preacher called all of the youth and children up to the altar.  I remember kneeling at the altar while the preacher led us in repeating a prayer.  I don't remember the prayer itself, though I'm pretty sure that it was some version of what is known as the "Sinner'sPrayer".  In my young mind, being a Christian meant that you went to church, didn't smoke, didn't drink, and didn't cuss.  I had to go to church, drinking and smoking weren't options at that point, so all that was left as a means for proving or disproving my new-found Christian faith was cussing.  I assumed that if I was in fact a Christian, I'd be physically unable to say a cuss word.  So, for the sake of finding out if my conversion was legitimate, I decided to run an experiment.  After successfully saying the word "s---", I concluded that I was not, in fact, a Christian.  

Sadly, many people (Christians and non-Christians alike) have an understanding of the Christian faith that is not that different from my childhood version.  There are many people who simply believe that being a Christian means being doing 'good things' and not doing 'bad things'.  But God calls us to greater heights than this.  We are called to be holy and through God's sanctifying grace, we are led to this holiness.

Reason Number 4 - I'm a United Methodist because holiness of heart and life is so central to the theology and practice of who we are as United Methodists.

It was liberating for me when I learned that holiness is not about personal moral achievement.  It is grace, a gift from God.  The United Methodist doctrine of sanctification is much deeper and loving than the over-bearing moralism of Christian fundamentalism.  If we look to a Hebrew understanding of holiness, the basic meaning is not moral perfection but 'set-apart-ness'.  In terms of what God does in a person through sanctifying grace, God works in them leading them to a new way of living in the world.  God does not call us away from the world like hermits nor does God set Christians up on some moral pedestal so that we can look down our noses and judge all of "those people".  Rather, God leads us away from the destructiveness of sin, self-absorption, and idolatry to a life shaped by the humble, sacrificial love of Jesus and the indwelling peace of the Holy Spirit.  John Wesley's Covenant Prayer (see below) teaches us that we are set apart not because of our worthiness or moral perfection but to be used by God for the sake of reconciliation and giving witness to the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside by thee.

Exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

Let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

I also found it liberating and energizing to learn that holiness is not merely personal holiness.  Methodists have long preached and sought to live out social holiness.  For me, social holiness is not about political reform or moral crusades - it means that God's love revealed in Jesus and made present in the Holy Spirit can actually change things in the world.  Sanctification is not merely an internal transformation in individual disciples but it's also about God using disciples to change things in the world around us.  Christians are to make God's Kingdom visible in how we treat our neighbors (hint: 'neighbors' = everybody), in how we work for justice and peace, and in how we care for hurting, sick, and broken people. 

I love that in the United Methodist Church, we are concerned with both the transformation of a person's heart and life while also working for the transformation of the world through the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.  To see this in action, check out the work of UMCOR.

By the way, I still do my best not to cuss.  But if I do, I'm pretty sure that grace abounds…

In invite your feedback - why do you belong to your church?  What do you love about your church?  And, I kindly ask for no negative comments about the United Methodist Church or any other denomination.  Make sure your words give grace to those who read...

Why I'm a United Methodist, Part 3

My journey, like almost everybody's journey, has been somewhat circuitous, turning this way and that, with ups and downs and a few places when a wheel went off the road a little.  There have been and continue to be mistakes - wrong turns, potholes, occasional fender-benders.  I'm going to stop with the traffic metaphors, I promise.  Through all of my miscues, mistakes, and mess-ups, I'm still here with a beautiful, loving wife, two awesome kids, and a vocation that I love deeply.  Some of that is the result of hard work, some good choices, and a lot of help from other people.  But mostly, I'm where I am - I'm who I am - because of God's abundant, awe-inspiring grace.

If you spend any time studying about Methodism and if the material you're studying is any good, it won't take long at all to realize that God's grace is the beating, loving heart of United Methodist theology.  We are a people soaked in, supported by, and suffused with God's grace.  I love this about my church!

Reason Number 3 - I'm a United Methodist because God's grace is so central to the theology and practice of who we are as United Methodists.

I should probably give an illustration here or tell some pertinent story about grace, but the examples are too many, the instances too abundant.  Every time I step into the pulpit or counsel a hurting person or baptize a child or bless the communion elements or preside over a funeral I do so only by the power of God's grace.  That God is willing to use me in those ways amazes and astounds me.  After all, I know me.  I know the things I've done (or not done), the things I've said (or not said), and God help me, all the things I've thought.  And God knows all of that stuff and then some.  Stuff I don't remember or didn't even realize.  And yet God still calls me to preach and teach and serve.  I tell ya, that's grace.  My favorite line in any praise and worship song is in Chris Tomlin's song Indescribable: "You've seen the depths of my heart and you love me the same." 

I love the Methodist "way of salvation", which is one way to describe how we understand God's grace.  We typically talk about grace in 3 (or maybe 4) forms: prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying.  If you're feeling like 3 doesn't cut it, you can add convicting in there also, between prevenient and justifying.  I love that these forms of grace work in unison to cover the whole of our lives.  A Wesleyan understanding of grace sees God's loving, gracious activity in our lives not only in isolated, individual moments - it's more like grace is woven through the tapestry of our lives, woven throughout from the beginning. 

God's prevenient grace goes before us.  I think back over the course of my life and I see God's fingerprints all over the place.  Even in moments of struggle, pain, or loss, God was at work all along the way, leading me by His grace.  I trust that you can say the same thing about your life as well.  God's grace still goes before me, God's fingerprints are still all over the place, even when I don't recognize them. 

There are times when we become aware of that grace, of God's loving presence and we accept for ourselves the gift of that grace.  There was a moment in my life (Sunday, November 28th, 1992 to be precise) when God's grace and love became real to me in a way that it had not before.  In this moment, I experienced God's justifying grace and it really did feel like my heart was "strangely warmed".  I didn't run to the altar, I didn't shout or cry, I didn't actually say anything - but everything changed.  God began a work of transformation in me that is still ongoing.  I felt that my sins were forgiven, that God loved me, and I became conscious of that Story that I was written into at my baptism.  I experienced and understood the love and mercy of Jesus in a profoundly new way and I'm still feeling the ripple effects of that moment of justifying grace.

That moment began a process/journey of what we Methodists call sanctification, which is God's grace at work in us, perfecting us in love.  When we are justified by God's grace, that's not the culmination or end of the story - it's only the beginning!  I love that about being a United Methodist!  God is still working on me, still shaping me through the Holy Spirit.  What I love about the United Methodist understanding of grace is its vibrancy - all three 'forms' of grace are always present.  It is not ultimately a fixed system or progression, as if the Holy Spirit is bound to some predictable script.  God's grace is alive and dynamic, always present and available. 

In invite your feedback - why do you belong to your church?  What do you love about your church?  And, I kindly ask for no negative comments about the United Methodist Church or any other denomination.  Make sure your words give grace to those who read...

Why I'm a United Methodist, Part 2

A happy (but too brief) reunion with Joe and Beverly McMurry

It's one of my favorite memories: walking into the back door of Bethpage UMC, bounding up the small set of stairs and then hearing Rev. Joe McMurry boom out as soon as he saw me, "Joooohnnn Wesley!"  I don't know how many Sunday morning's this actually happened, but it felt like a lot and it meant the world to me.  I was a hyperactive kid, prone to being impulsive and unable to sit still for any meaningful length of time.  As a consequence, I occasionally got on people's nerves.  Sometimes it felt like the whole world was poised, waiting to fuss at me for talking too much, asking too many questions, not sitting still, whatever.  Oh, don't feel sorry for me - all of those things were true!

However, it did make those adults who were patient with me and did make me feel welcomed that much more important.  And there were a lot of those people, most of whom were at Bethpage UMC.  But Joe stood out.  He always seemed happy to see me.  I'm pretty sure that Joe made a lot of people feel that way, but it was important for a 7-year-old to have one authority figure (outside of his parents) who expressed joy and gladness at their presence. 

Reason Number 2 - I'm a United Methodist because Rev. Joe McMurry made me feel welcomed and wanted in church.

At Annual Conference, candidates for ordination are asked John Wesley's Historic Questions.  One of those questions is "will you diligently instruct the children in every place?"  While Joe's enthusiastic greeting was not technically 'instruction', it did teach me an important lesson about ministry and making kids feel special and like they belong in the church.  Joe and his wonderful wife Beverly (who was just as welcoming and equally influential for me) moved to another church when I was 7, giving me my first taste of the United Methodist system of itineration.  But I try to honor Joe's legacy of faithful ministry by trying to make the children in my church feel welcomed and loved. 

So, there's my second reason that I'm a United Methodist.  I'm thankful to God for Joe and Beverly McMurry and their faithful witness to God's love and for being examples for me of Christian hospitality!  And for what it's worth, I have been planning for several months to start this 'series' of posts and this has long been #2 on my list.  Just a few weeks ago while I was serving at Carolina Cross Connection, I realized that our camp was only minutes from Joe and Beverly's home.  I asked my team if we could stop by and they were happy to.  Joe and Beverly greeted us just as warmly and with the same joy and kindness that I remembered from my childhood.  What a blessing it was to see them again!

In invite your feedback - why do you belong to your church?  What do you love about your church?  And, I kindly ask for no negative comments about the United Methodist Church or any other denomination.  Make sure your words give grace to those who read...

Why I am a United Methodist, Part 1

Not that anybody's sitting around wondering, "why is Wes Smith a United Methodist?", so this is more for my benefit - some helpful reminders as the church begins moving towards General Conference next year.  The reasons I'll be sharing on this blog are not exhaustive, but they are the most important reasons to me.  So, let's get started!

Reason Number 1 - I'm a United Methodist because my parents raised me in a United Methodist Church.  

I've heard it said a number of times that "cradle Christians" are only Christians because their parents brought them up in the church. Those of us who grew up in the church might have heard people question our commitment or our depth of faith because we've always been in the church. As Paul would say, that's some skubala right there (look it up).  Certainly, there are people who are Christians (of any denominational variety) that are Christians simply because of inertia.  And there are people who have not critically examined the faith that was handed down to them by their families.  But this true of any number of things - holiday traditions, grocery store preferences, favorite sports teams, on and on.  However, simply because it's true for some doesn't mean that it's true for all.  Some of us have critically examined our faith and take seriously our participation in whatever church/denomination we're a part of.  And we still choose to remain in the church/denomination/tradition that we were raised in.  

I'm a United Methodist because my parents were (and still are) both incredible examples of what faithful Christian commitment looks like in a United Methodist context.  They raised me to be committed to God, to my family, and to my church. I was taught, whether they would have put it this way or not, to hold to Methodism's twin concern for personal and social holiness.  How I behave, the choices I make, how I view and interact with the world - these things are important and are to be shaped by God's love for me and my love for God.  My dad was more involved in the leadership side of things, serving on pretty much every committee in my home church at one time or another.  My mother was a dedicated Sunday school teacher and also provided leadership in a number of groups and activities in the church.  For a few years, both of them led the UMYF (United Methodist Youth Fellowship) at our church, which puts my personal involvement with that ministry at almost 30 years. 

So, there's my first reason that I'm a United Methodist.  I was raised by two parents who were active leaders in our church and who were and are still models for me of Christian commitment.  I am extremely thankful for my mom and dad and their example! 

In invite your feedback - why do you belong to your church?  What do you love about your church?  And, I kindly ask for no negative comments about the United Methodist Church or any other denomination.  Make sure your words give grace to those who read...

A Response to Some Questions Rachel Held Evans Asked Three Weeks Ago

I'm too slow for the internet age.  I've got too much to do, too many places that my kids need to be, too many meetings, etc.  I've made a number of efforts to blog with some regularity, but that always fails spectacularly.  Oh, I've got thoughts and ideas about stuff to write  - but they get moved to the side by the normal stuff of day-to-day ministry and life.  I say all that because I wrote a response to some questions that Rachel Held Evans  posted which are (I think) intended to be part of a discussion that she will be 'hosting' over the summer.  Below is my response to her first set of questions.  Not sure who will read this, but here ya go:

1. What's the difference between being prophetic and just being a jerk? 

I think it can be boiled down to two things: intent and content.  For ancient Hebrew prophets, their intention was to proclaim the message that God gave to them.  Their motivation was faithfulness to God, even in the face of hostile opposition and, for some, the very real threat of death.  The Hebrew prophets covered a wide range of approaches, rhetoric, and personalities - the delivery methods employed were not the issue.  The primary issue was faithfulness to God's call and God's message. 

I always brace myself when I hear someone label themselves or their message as being "prophetic".  There are typically two reasons they do this, in my experience: (1) they are worried that their message is somewhat controversial and so they are attempting to forestall any potential criticisms or dismissals by appealing to the so-called "prophetic" nature of their message, or, (2) they may assume that using that label gives them carte blanche to be confrontational or mean-spirited and any dissenters can just shut up and take their medicine. 

However, being a prophet means being a vessel for God's message, speaking for God, delivering God's Word.  Put simply, a prophet's job is to tell the truth as revealed by God.  Being a prophet is NOT simply telling people controversial stuff.  It is NOT crafting your message so that people will feel bad, about themselves or others.  It is NOT challenging or confronting or exposing simply for the sake of doing these things.  What many who claim to be 'prophetic' often forget is how much praise, encouragement, joy, and hope can be found in the Hebrew prophets. 

As a Christian, my conviction is that love must motivate any teaching or sermon or statement that we deem 'prophetic'.  If we are not motivated by love of God and love of our neighbors, then the claim of being prophetic is an empty one.  When our message is motivated by self-righteousness, moral superiority, or theological competition, we are not prophets, we are Pharisees.  And jerks, too. 

2. How do we advocate both prophetic challenge and grace-filled public engagement without resorting to incivility on the one hand or tone-policing on the other?

First, I wonder what is meant by "public engagement" - which public is assumed here?  Who are we advocating for exactly?  Our own public engagement, the Church's in general, Christians who claim to be 'prophetic'?  I'll assume that we're talking about Christian leaders who have the responsibility to speak and whose platform extends beyond the local church, which is a large number of people given the prominence of social media. 

Not to be flippant, but I think the answer again is love.  Not tolerance or pity or paternalism masquerading as love.  And not judgmental moralizing or warnings about damnation cruelly posing as love.  But cruciform, kenotic, Holy Spirit powered love that contains within itself both prophetic challenge and grace in abundance.  The most difficult prophetic message for our time (in my humble opinion) is that God's love revealed in Jesus Christ persistently pushes/leads/pulls/urges us towards both introspective confessional humility and towards indiscriminate, active serving of others. 

In terms of tone-policing, the difficulty in our current time and place is that so many of us feel the insistent urge to oversee other peoples' words and actions.  So many of us feel responsible to point out others' deficiencies, typically as they relate to some fuzzy notion of 'tolerance' or 'acceptance' on the progressive side of things and stridency or strict adherence to a theological program on the other side.  The mechanism (social media) makes the lure of pharisaical tone-policing almost irresistible.  And if it is a Christian who is doing the policing (which is so often the case as it relates to your content), then I typically assume that such persons have not spent much time actually wrestling with Matthew 7:1-5 or Romans 2:1-11 - of course, I could be wrong about that.

When it comes to civility, I personally think it's overrated as well as being an ambiguous standard for judging our speech.  Civility, like tolerance, is a very low bar to set for our discourse, although we should by no means strive for incivility, either.  Civility is a fine enough standard for secular political discourse, but for Christians, we are called to something much greater and much more difficult: the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ and made possible in us through the Holy Spirit. 

3. Is an online “call out” an effective way to create change, and if so, how can it be done well?

No, it's not effective mainly because it is so impersonal.  Meaningful correction/rebuke is most effective when it comes from a place of love and is bolstered by authentic relationship.  Again, I'm coming at this from the perspective of a Christian, so I have nothing to say about this outside of the Christian faith.  I am certain that Christians "calling out" non-Christians and vice versa online is a non-starter.  The same is true between persons of different denominations or theological positions.  I can't really say any way that this can be effective if there is no personal connection since anything online is so easy to misinterpret or ignore. 

Being Christians together is so very difficult because it requires work that is extremely time and attention intensive.  I must spend time getting to know people and I must listen to them patiently and with much grace before I can offer meaningful correction.  Honest, loving rebuke must arise out of a seedbed of Christ-centered love, not anonymous self-righteousness.  This, of course, demands patience and humility.  The way of Jesus is a way of self-denial and sacrifice, sacrificing even our insistent need to be right and to point out the faults and missteps of others - especially those with whom we have no relationship.  

Nikita Koloff, the Holy Spirit, and Me

Saturday mornings when I was a kid were awesome - several hours of cartoons followed by the pinnacle of the morning's entertainment: NWA Championship Wrestling (which, if memory serves, came on at 11:00).  At the time, the Cold War was still a big deal, so of course pro wrestling got in on the action with Ivan Koloff and his nephew* - a beast of a man named Nikita Koloff**.  In the mid to late 80's, Nikita was one of the top heels in the NWA and was really intimidating.  Over the next few years (coinciding with the collapse of the Soviet Union), Nikita would switch back and forth between heel and face until his retirement from wrestling in 1992 following an injury.  Shortly after his retirement, Nikita became a Christian and became active in several Charlotte-area ministries, typically of the Pentecostal/Church of God varieties. 

On a Sunday morning in November of 1992, I had an experience of God that changed my life.  The reverberations of that experience are still being felt in big and small ways in my life and a lot about who I am today can be traced back to that moment.  There were no tears, I didn't run to the altar, I actually didn't say anything.  But something 'clicked' in my head and my heart - I began to take my faith very seriously.  As we used to say in youth group, from that moment on, I was "on fire" for God.  I began trying to learn as much as I could about being a Christian, digging into the Scripture and making numerous trips to the Christian book store in Kannapolis.  Over time, I became really interested in the role of the Holy Spirit, which was not necessarily a huge topic of discussion in my church.  In the spring of 1995 (20 years ago!), I heard some friends at school talking about an awesome revival that was happening at West A Church of God.  Having attended a couple of Church of God services with a friend back in elementary school, I knew it was likely to be a little bit more energetic than worship at my church, so me and a friend decided to check it out. 

The first night, we stayed in the balcony as the preacher poured his heart out in a display of high-energy preaching (his being blind and British made the whole affair fairly exotic for us Enochville kids).  My friend and I looked around, a little bit freaked out by the hand raising and shouting, along with the snippets we could hear of people speaking in tongues.  This was definitely not my calm, laid-back United Methodist Church.  We came back the second night, bringing a few more friends with us.  After the sermon on this night, I decided to make my way to the altar to pray. I had already seen a number of people "slain" in the Spirit - the preacher would place his hand on their head, say a prayer, and they would fall down.  I was a fired up Christian, to be sure, but I was skeptical, thinking that there was no way this was going to happen to me.  I expected to be prayed over and then I would make my way back to my seat. 

I stood in a row with other expectant people - most of them other kids I went to school with.  The preacher prayed over all of us.  Some people fell down, some cried, some stood still and quietly walked away after being prayed over.  The preacher came to me and laid his hand on my head and began praying.  I can't really explain what happened, but suddenly I couldn't really feel my legs.  The next thing I remember I was looking up at the faces of the ushers who were tasked with helping people who "fell out".  The first face I saw clearly was, no kidding, Nikita Koloff.  I can't explain how truly odd this moment was.  A life-long Methodist with no experience in this kind of worship being "slain in the Spirit" and then being helped to his feet by the Russian Nightmare!  He was serving as an usher for this revival and was one of those helping people back up on their feet, which made sense given how big the guy still was.

That revival was the last time I attended at charismatic/Church of God worship service - not because I'm opposed to charismatic worship.  It's just not my preferred style of worship.  But that evening (along with a couple of other odd incidents during that revival) taught me a couple of things.  One, the Spirit is real and powerful and is not contained in any one style nor limited to our experience or understanding.  Two, God works in weird ways and through weird people sometimes.  Like me or you or Nikita Koloff...

*Not really his nephew.
**Not really his name, which was actually Scott Simpson, until he legally changed it to Nikita Koloff.  That's dedication, right there...

Unfinished Grace

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about grace.  Serving on committees that interview candidates for ordained ministry, I try to pay close attention to candidates' understanding of grace and why it's central to who we are as United Methodists.  In the ordination papers that they submit, many candidates tell some very moving stories about their ministries and the theological lessons they are learning in the trenches.  I've shared similar stories, both in my ordination papers and in plenty of sermons.  So I'm not judging anybody nor am I saying that I won't continue to tell stories that have nice and neat conclusions.

These stories, while moving and good, many times appear much neater on the page than they likely were when they were happening.  Life is usually more open-ended than the stories we tell.  So it is with grace.  This is a lesson that I'm slowly learning in my life as I realize that so much of what I do or work on or plan does not come to a point of neat closure.  Tidy narratives are the stuff of good books and movies, not necessarily our lives.  As I was thinking about this, I remembered one of those messy and unfinished stories from my past.

I met George early on in my ministry.  He was an older man who was loosely associated with the church where I served.  George had once studied religion in college for the purpose of going into the ministry and it was quickly clear that he loved to talk about the Bible.  However, as a young man, he also developed a powerful addiction to alcohol that he couldn't conquer no matter how hard he tried.  He would visit the church where I served for a few weeks and then disappear for 5-6 months or more.  When he came back, the church would always warmly embrace him and show him so much love and grace.  I remember thinking (a little naively) that maybe this would be enough to turn things around for George, to get him involved.  That we could love him and hug him and worship with him enough that he would seek to get healthy - body, mind, and spirit.  In my time at the church, it wasn't to be.

I would stop by George's house from time to time (typically after he had disappeared for a couple of months) and we'd sit and talk for a while.  During one of those visits, we talked about his college experience and his eventual turning away from faith and towards drinking.  He just couldn't see his way past the bottle, and he took to heart a phrase from I Corinthians 6:10 which says: "thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God."  I tried as hard as I could to convince George that God was waiting to forgive, to embrace, to redeem - even from a darkness he couldn't see his way out of.  To no avail - George told me, "there's no hope for me, preacher.  I don't want to stop drinking and God don't want no drunkards.  So you see, we're stuck, me and God."  I left that church no closer to a resolution than I was when I first met George. 

We like to tell stories that resolve, stories that offer redemption, completion, and come to nice, tidy conclusions.  We tell stories like that because so often, our lives are not like that.  Life's a lot messier and open-ended and unfinished, and so we long for that day when God will bring all of our stories to a remarkable, magnificent, redemptive close.  And, who knows, perhaps I planted a seed or two in George's heart that the Holy Spirit will one day bring to fruition.  My fervent hope is that God's grace is big enough for George and for all of us broken people who, on any given day, want our crutches more than we want to be healed.  I'm trying to trust God more as I see and experience more of these open-ended stories, to remember that I may not be there to witness that grace grow and flourish in someone's life.  Perhaps my part is to put seeds in the dirt, as so many have done with me...

Isaiah's Call (Isaiah 6:1-13)

This reflection was written for the upcoming IDK 2015, an event for young people exploring a call into ministry.  I've posted it here because, well, it seemed like the place to put it...even if you're not called into ministry, there might be a few things worth thinking/praying about in this post...

I've always found the story of Isaiah's call fascinating for several reasons (listed below). It's not that I can necessarily relate to Isaiah's story - I haven't seen God robed in splendor in a sanctuary and I've never had an angel put a burning coal to my lips. But there are some things about this story that I can relate to:

1. "I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips" - there have been times when I've been unfaithful to God or when I've made poor choices and I begin to wonder about God's wisdom in calling a guy like me into ministry. If you talk to a lot of pastors, they'll likely tell you something similar. Isaiah is helpful here - God didn't call Isaiah because Isaiah was perfect or because Isaiah was more awesome than everybody else. We should notice that God doesn't argue with Isaiah when Isaiah says that his lips are unclean, but God does purify Isaiah's lips/mouth (that's what's going on with the burning coal). God's calling into ministry is not about how holy or good or gifted a person is, but about God choosing ordinary people to proclaim an extraordinary Gospel and do extraordinary things for God's Kingdom.
2. Saying "ok" to God can lead to pain (but pain for a purpose) - a couple of weeks ago, I burned two fingertips on our brand-new panini press and it was painful.  It wasn't even a bad burn - barely even noticeable a few hours later.  And anybody who has endured are really bad sunburn can agree that getting burned is extremely uncomfortable.  When the angel touches Isaiah's mouth with the burning coal, it's not the physical pain that's the issue.  Having God cleanse us - our thoughts, our speech, our actions - can be a very uncomfortable experience.  Even though I recognized and accepted God's call into ministry at the age of 16, the Holy Spirit is still doing the work of cleansing and purifying in me - and at times it can be pretty painful.  While the purifying grace of sanctification is a life-long process that can be painful and really uncomfortable (and repeatedly needed), God's sanctifying grace allows us to grow in our faith and trust God more and more.
3. In verse 8, the Lord asks: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"  Isaiah quickly answers: "Me...I'll go!  Here I am!"  Sometimes you need to be careful what you sign up for, because God immediately tells Isaiah that he will prophesying to people who won't understand, won't see, and won't hear.  I love the people in my church and I love being a minister, but there are days when it feels that way.  I think that God might have been preparing Isaiah for the reality that his prophetic ministry was not always going to be easy nor was it always going to be "successful" (at least not in the way the world around us defines "success").  Saying "yes!  Here I am!" when God calls is a remarkable, wonderful thing worth celebrating.  And even when things get difficult, when the road gets steep, and when it seems that nobody's listening - God is still with us and still calling us.

When I was a junior in high school, struggling with whether or not God was calling me into ministry, reading about Isaiah's faith and his willingness to say "Here am I! Send me!" was inspiring and challenging in the best way.  It also helped to know that someone like Isaiah would face difficulty and struggle - and that God would be with him all the way.

I'm praying for all of you who are figuring out God's call in your life.  It's been (and continues to be) an amazing, difficult, joyful, exhilarating adventure following God's call and trying to follow where Jesus leads.  I'm thankful we're  on this road together!

Grace and Peace,

Wes Smith

btw, check out the IDK website or find us at callingIDK on Facebook, Twitter (@callingIDK), and Instagram...