I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other. (John 15:15-17)

Read: Matthew 15:21 – 16:12, Mark 7:24 – 8:21

Relate: What if I was someone else? It is a bit of a daydream that I fall back on every now and then. I don’t mean by it, what if I was Justin Bieber or Derek Jeter or anything like that. I mean, what if I was born to a different time? What it I was raised in another culture speaking another language? How would my life be different, my worldview be different, if I were born in Cambodia instead of America? How would I have grown if I was the third of three kids instead of the second of eight? What if I was born into staggering wealth and affluence? What if I was born to a family that had to walk three miles every day just to get clean water? Instead of being 5’10” what if I was 6’10” or 4’10”, how would that change my outlook on life?

React: Mental exercises like these are for me to challenge everything, question everything. What I know, what I think, even how I think, given the right circumstances it can all get tossed out the window. Except one thing. It is an unquestionable, undeniable truth that God chose me to be a follower of Him. I did not chose Christ, He chose me. So no matter where I was born. No matter what my religious or cultural upbringing eventually, somehow, I would end up serving Him. I am His.

The only question that leaves, is how long would I have spent running and trying to evade His call on my life? If I was born to a Muslim family in Iran, I might have tried to avoid His calling longer and harder than I have. Perhaps if I had been born to an atheist or nominal family in western Europe, I might have done my best to simply ignore it. No matter what, when, or where, sooner or later I would end up passionately following Him. It defines me. Does it you? Or are you still running, evading, opposing, or perhaps ignoring His call?

Respond: 

God, I am so grateful that You have called me and chosen me. There is nothing I could have done. There is no way I can earn your favor. It isn’t an accident of birth or upbringing. It isn’t a fate of culture. I am Yours. I always will be Yours, and in every possible imaginable scenario, I belong to You. Do with me as You please.