when God calls you

Today we learn a very important lesson in our reading from Acts 14:8-28 in the One Year Bible. We learn what it means when God calls you.

See, there's a man listening to Paul and Barny. And he's never walked in his entire life. So, needless to say, he doesn't know HOW to walk. He has no idea. He's never put one foot in front of the other. But then Paul sees that he has faith to be healed (that's a sentence for another blog, another day) and he says, "Stand up!" The man immediately JUMPS to his feet and starts walking. He probably stumbled, right? Might have fallen a few times. Maybe fell flat on his face a few times. But he was walking... something he'd never done before.

God is calling YOU to do something, too. He's literally calling you to do the EXACT same thing Paul called that man to do. "Stand up!" Stand up for what you believe in. Stand up for Him. Stand up to the bullies in your life. Stand up for the causes that you know are important.

And when you do, you're probably gonna fall. You're gonna stumble. You're gonna make mistakes. Your walk isn't gonna be smooth or catwalk ready. It's gonna be bumpy. That's where it's important to realize - and I mean DEEP DOWN realize - the truth of what G.K. Chesterton said: "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly."

When He calls you to stand up, you're not going to do it perfectly (probably.) You're gonna make mistakes. But it's worth doing. So keep doing it. Stick with it. Even if you NEVER get good at it... it's worth doing. Don't give up.

Stand up!

God, thanks for calling us to stand. Please remind us it's OK to fall.