Balancing The Call

One day, I was hanging out with some friends and I received a phone call. Once I answered, I realized that this was a “ministry call.” Someone wanted to talk about a situation they were going through and within minutes of being on the phone, this person asked for prayer. It seemed that my friends and I were at the peak of the visit. The festivities were just getting good and laughter had filled the room. But, here I was, on the phone about to hear what I’m pretty sure was a really sad story. So, in my mind, I was thinking “well I’ll just tell them that I’ll call back once my company leaves.” But every time I fixed my mouth to say “I’ll call you back,” they would say “I just need you to pray with me.” Their voice had so much desperation in it. I found myself being drawn to the bathroom, which was the quietest place in my house at this point. I told myself, “Once this person finishes venting, I’ll just pray and tell them that I’ll check on them tomorrow.” I was enjoying my friends and the fellowship so much that I was actually willing to put ministry on the back burner and use “balanced life” as an excuse to do it! I was convicted and I surrendered to the call. Before I knew it, my “short prayer” turned into a 45 minute session! When I came out of the bathroom, my friends were gone home and I’m pretty sure I had missed something. But, even though my fellowship was cut short, my heart was overjoyed and I felt so free! Because I chose to surrender to the call, we were both able to get off the phone with uplifted hearts and a drive to push forward even the more!

When the phone call initially came through, I had already prepared my self to put whomever it was on the back burner because I was “balancing my life.” I felt as if the time I was spending with my friends was needed more for me in that moment than a prayer call. Often times, we get so caught up doing church until we drain ourselves and then we turn to “alternate” activities to balance our life. We find stuff that we enjoy doing or sometimes we simply do nothing! Either way, we use these things as our reasons to bring fulfillment and balance to our lives! However, notice that I said ‘we get so caught up DOING church.’ As a lifelong member of the church girl society, I will be the first to say that it’s so easy to get caught up in doing church; so easy in fact that it makes you forget to actually be the church! Once we recognize the difference in the two, we will then stop separating “life” and “ministry.” So many times we hear people say “I have a life outside of ministry” or my favorite one “You have to have a life outside of church!” But in reality, LIFE IS YOUR MINISTRY and YOU ARE THE CHURCH! No matter if you’re standing in a pulpit or in a convenient store, you’re still called to be the church! Now, I understand the concept of having balance in life because no area needs to be neglected. I’m just simply saying, the next time you have the thought of balancing your life, ask yourself something. “Have I gone from BEING the church to just DOING church?”

The point is, we all like to have fun without being under the pressure of being politically correct or without having the burden of the “church stuff.” But let’s not become so balanced with our own agendas until we neglect the call.