The Calling's Completion

On Thursday of this week, I will help to lay to rest a fellow soldier of the Cross. I can't help but to reflect on some of the amazing accomplishments of a man named Jeff to whom most of you probably never met, never saw and never would have as his quiet demeanor didn't lend itself to flash or being out front.

He touched many of your lives, though, in ways that you'll presently understand. He received the Holy Ghost in 2001 or 2002, and began to grow and began soon to bear fruit. He was a willing soldier that would climb on a bike and pedal 62 1/2 miles for Sheaves for Christ, raising money for the missionaries. In fact, he would raise startling amounts of money, some of it coming out of his own pocket, and other funds coming from a willingness to commit to a cause where he would never receive any plaudits or atta boys from those who were the direct receipents of this willingness.

I would say to you that if you gave him a pat on the back, you would certainly embarrass him. He was just that kind of soldier.

But I began to wonder what about the calling that God had placed on his life. He was 35, in the prime of health and life. We were pressure washing a building next to our church and he slipped and fell.

But he was only 35. . . . .

He had only been preaching maybe a couple of years. . . . .

He didn't blow hot and cold, just steady on. . . .

He was one of the first ones to start the worship in our church. . . . .

He would ask me, in fact, the last time he preached a couple of Wednesday nights ago, how to better communicate and "step away" from his notes. . . . He was quick to learn and to listen.

But why was he asked to step into another dimension? Why, when there was a great number of years and good things to come? Why when there were so many sermon's left in his mind, and so many ones yet to preach? Why place a calling on someone's life and yet not seemingly let it have a chance to bloom and grow to a full fledged tree?

I have chewed over this thought for quite some time, as the time seems to have drastically altered since Saturday at 0950 AM.

I can only conclude a very few things.

The calling of God on a man exist much more in the moment than it does in time of the future. When the opportunity of expressing that calling comes, give it all that you have, because there is no promise of tomorrow. Not for us, nor for that calling that exists within you.

The calling is meant to be exercised now, not tomorrow.

The completion of the calling must happen every time that we step into a pulpit, whether in a traditional church setting or outside those walls of the House of Prayer.

While I percieve the calling in my life to be a lifelong journey, while there is a component of the future in my mind, I cannot allow myself to be caught in the future so much that I can't focus on the present.

I leave you with this thought, gentle reader. The Bible is clear that there is not an hour like this hour to achieve and accomplish. I entreat you to not leave anything dangling, or miss any opportunity to exercise that calling.

Jeff Jefferson is and was one of my most dear and precious friends. His gentle disposition has taught me much.

But Jeff had his callings' completion Saturday pressure washing a building for the Lord. Not the anticipated pulpit, but one that reverberates in my soul. He spent his life doing ministry and placing his calling on a high plane.

God Bless you.