What would Jesus say to you to get you to follow?

I was stretching today to a time when I knew a whole lot more about music and conducting than I do now.  What would draw me away from something that I loved and still love so much?  Answer for me, a call to what I loved about making music and to a world that made a difference somehow.  My mentor, Dennis, ignited my own passion and loves into a context that filled my world with hope.  So many people are afraid God will call them to what they fear, but my experience is that God calls us to what we love most, using the gifts we value most, in a context that startles us into hope.

I used one of my favorite pieces of music, the fourth movement of Brahm's German Requiem.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RetKt6RgleAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RetKt6RgleA , or a wonderful recording of The Sixteen doing a version with a few voices and piano, much slower than I am used to but with marvelous scope http://www.lala.com/#album/1657606138214280278http://www.lala.com/#album/1657606138214280278). I didn't leave music and conducting, I changed the setting. I may never conduct the Brahm's Requiem, and there is a lot of stuff in the ministry that I don't do that well either. But, I can help people hear the symphony of God's Presence in almost all of their lives, can help a church work together to play a bit of that music, and can help people hear in the old Masters a bit of the Gospel they may not hear now or maybe have never heard before.


That is the word that God speaks to us when we are called.


It is what I find so special about Volunteers in Mission, or Habitat for Humanity, or the folks making food in our kitchen for people living on the Riverbank. "Hey, I like building things. Come build houses for people who would otherwise never have a stable place to live" "I love to cook. Come feed the world." "I love to host parties. Come and throw a Thanksgiving Feast for my fragile ones."


People who invite us into mission tell us that there is so much hope in the world and our gifts matter. And when the world is suddenly filled with hope, anything can happen.


What word might God speak to your heart that will call you to a new life that changes the world?