When God calls ordinary people
Called by God
Short reflections to be still with, drawn from Bible passages in Philippians 2:8, Amos 1:1, Genesis 17:4 and Exodus 3:4.
☀ Morning moment
And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross.
Philippians 2:8
Paul writes this letter with a guard chained to his wrist, and the news reaching him from Philippi is not good. Two women he loves are at odds, the church is pulling in different directions, people are serving their own ambitions. He cannot walk in and settle it with His hands, so he reaches for a song.
Scholars think Paul is quoting a hymn the church already sang, not inventing a new argument but reminding them of something they once sang together. It traces Christ from equality with God, down through taking the form of a servant, down further still into human flesh, down to this: obedient, even to death on a cross. Every line moves downward. Nothing here is grasped or held onto.
That word obedient is the hinge. Not forced, not resigned, but a willing descent. The one with every right to hold His place let it go, for the sake of people who had nothing to offer Him back.
Today you gather with others who, like the Philippians, carry their own disagreements, tiredness, and private ambitions into the room. This hymn does not ask you to win the argument. It asks you to have His mind: the readiness to go low, to serve, to let go of what you could rightfully hold onto.
Today
Before you leave for church, write down the name of one person you are at odds with, and say out loud, 'Lord, give me His mind toward this person today.'
✦ Lunch moment
The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
Amos 1:1
Sit back for a moment. Let your shoulders drop.
Amos was nobody's idea of a prophet. He kept sheep in Tekoa and pricked sycamore figs to ripen them, work that stained his hands and never once looked like a calling. No training, no priestly line, no robe. Just a man with animals and trees and a long, quiet life ahead of him.
Then Yahweh took him from behind the flock and sent him north, to Bethel, to speak against a king's sanctuary and a comfortable priesthood. It cost him exactly what you would expect: he was told to go home, to prophesy somewhere else, somewhere smaller. A herdsman does not get to correct a kingdom and walk away unscathed.
What opens up here is this: God has never needed impressive people to carry true words. He takes the one with dirt under his nails and figs in His hands and says, go. Your ordinary life was never too small for Him to use.
Today is the Lord's Day. You gather, you sing, you sit under preached words, maybe restless, maybe half tired already. Remember that the man who gave us these words was shaped on hillsides, not in temples.
Today
During worship today, keep a small piece of paper nearby. Write down the one sentence from the service that unsettles or steadies you most, and read it again before you sleep tonight.
◐ Afternoon moment
“As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations.
Genesis 17:4
Every time a herdsman called Abram's name across the camp at evening, driving flocks toward water, the sound itself carried a meaning: exalted father. People said it without thinking, the way we say a surname. But no son answered to that name. His tents sheltered nephews, servants, hired men, and flocks beyond counting, yet not one child of his own body. The name was spoken daily over a life that contradicted it.
Then God changes the sound. Abram becomes Abraham, a name swollen with an extra syllable, hamon, multitude. Father of a multitude of nations. This is not flattery. He is ninety-nine. Sarah is barren. The new name is announced before there is a single grandchild to prove it true.
That is the uncomfortable part. God does not wait for evidence and then rename him accordingly. He speaks the name first, into an empty tent, and tells Abraham to carry it through years where it will sound like a lie to anyone counting his household.
On a Sunday, gathered with others who also carry names given before they were earned, child of God, forgiven, beloved, it is worth asking which of these still feel borrowed rather than true. A name spoken over you by God does not wait for your resume to catch up.
Today
Write your own name on a piece of paper today. Underneath it write one thing God's word says you are becoming, not what your circumstances currently show, and leave that paper somewhere you will see it again before the day ends.
☾ Evening moment
When Yahweh saw that he came over to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!” He said, “Here I am.”
Exodus 3:4
We assume God shows up in the grand and the set apart, in a sanctuary, a sunset, a moment we have prepared for. Moses would have agreed. He had spent forty years learning that the real action was elsewhere, back in Egypt, back in his old life. Then, on a hillside he knew by heart, tending sheep that were not even his own, something ordinary refused to behave.
The text is careful about one detail: Yahweh spoke only after Moses turned aside to look. The fire did not shout for attention. It simply kept burning without being consumed, strange enough to make a tired shepherd stop walking. God did not wait for Moses in a temple. He waited for him to notice.
This is the turning point of the whole story, and it starts with nothing more dramatic than a man slowing down on an unremarkable path. From that pause came a name, a calling, and a people set free. The holy ground was not holy before Moses stopped there. It was holy because God was already standing in it.
Tonight, after a day of worship and rest, you may be tempted to think God was present only in the gathered songs, the sermon, the handshakes. He may also have been in the quieter hour before or after, the walk to the car, the meal at the table.
Today
Before you lie down, slip off your shoes for ten seconds wherever you are standing and name one ordinary moment from today you did not notice at the time. Thank God for it out loud.
Read these passages in the World English Bible (WEB)
Tap a passage to read the full text right here.
8And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross.
1The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
4“As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations.
4When Yahweh saw that he came over to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!” He said, “Here I am.”
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