The Call To Be

In May of 1974, I enlisted in the United States Air Force.  I was sent to Lackland Air Base, where they began to teach me and expect of me a multitude of things from hand salutes to parade formation to rifle precision.  They had a way of dong everything, which was very specific and they insisted we learn to do things as a team precisely synchronized.

However, doing things was never really the point.  Becoming something was always the goal.  The TIs (training instructors) had one goal, to transform us from a bunch of disorganized, detached civilians into a unified fighting force by instilling military bearing.  The United States Air Force was not interested in getting us to do, it was calling us to be.

The intent of basic training was to drill us over and over with facts, activities, goals and deadlines in order to bring about a metamorphosis from what they called "Rainbows" (multicultural and decisively different) into a military unit.  They were calling us to be separate from the civilian world and separated to the world of the USAF.

The apostle Paul talks about this very process into the Army of the Lord in Romans 12:1, where we are challenged: "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."  And the apostle Peter drills down on this principle in saying, "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do" (1 Pet 1:15).

The life of one who accepts God's grace, becoming a follower of Jesus Christ, is filled with doing.  The Christ Follower will serve, give, sacrifice, worship, love and so much more because he/she is becoming so much more.  God's call is never about dong, it is a call to be, which will result in doing.

We don't "do" our way into salvation, the doing is part of the transformation into being a disciple: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith---and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God---not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Eph 2:8-10).  Jus' Say'n.