What if You Get Called Up?
Reprint of an article from 1944by Eva M. McCarthy
In 1944, this article appeared in His magazine, InterVarsity's publication for students. The biggest war of the last century was five years old, and hundreds of readers of HIS had left the campus or their careers to march to battlefields. The thing to remember is: this is all in God's plan for your life. This article tells why. Belfast, Ireland, 1944
You are, or were, up at the University for some usual course of study. These years were to be full of normal increase. Your life was to be enriched with
many things - friendship, knowledge, sports, fellowship - growth of every kind.
More than this, in company with others you were learning to witness effectively
for Christ, to study your Bible, to discover the possibilities of the Christian
life.
Thus those few precious years were to be but a prelude to a life of service where the fruits of a well-rounded college course would be consecrated to a life of devoted work and witness.
But what now?
Instead of the classroom, the barrack. Instead of the Inter-Varsity group, the mess tent. Instead of the campus, the battlefield.
Moreover, time is passing. The years with their unique opportunity are being filched from you. Never again will you be able to pick up just those threads of life. That will be for others. Your chance will have passed. If only you were younger or older, it would be better. Hence, in the light of your honest desire to prepare yourself for God's service you look at your present circumstances with varying degrees of wonder, resentment or even bitterness.
Where can you find consolation?
In times of perplexity the best source of guidance and assurance is the Bible. And here one way to find strength and faith is to observe the guiding principles in the lives of outstanding men of God who, through times of protracted testing and trial, have trusted in the overruling wisdom and power of the God into whose hands they have committed their times.
Take the record of one who was called of God to a position of leadership in the greatest crisis of his nation's history.
A strange record in some ways, it would seem to us; for Moses' life was two-thirds preparation - preparation of body and mind and spirit. But how splendidly equipped he was when the call came! Intellectually he had had the best the world could offer. To be "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" meant a fairly liberal education. Languages, mathematics, astronomy, art, history, philosophy - nothing would be missing. The exacting training of a king's household, the study of men and manners in the diplomatic, religious and social circles of the day - all would have peculiar value in fitting him for the task of leadership.
But how abnormal from his own standards the whole setting of those early years must have appeared to Moses. As the years went by, how full of frustration they must have seemed as the gulf only widened between himself and the people he loved and longed to help.
And this is probably the way it appears to many of you now ... It would be strange if the thought did not come to you as you see all your gifts and tastes and interests forced into the unaccustomed groove.
Then for Moses came the desert experience. For 40 years patience had her perfect work in his spirit. While his bodily frame was growing accustomed to long hours in the open air he was receiving many tests of endurance in the hardy, hazardous life of an eastern shepherd.
It is not a small thing - this training of the body. Your body is that through which you manifest the life of the Lord Jesus. It is the car track along which your life, impelled by the power of the Holy Spirit, moves forward. The contrasting lessons of regularity and adaptability to which your nervous and muscular systems are subjected will constitute no trifle in your usability later on. It is not impossible that the alertness and control born of intensive commando tactics may be used of God in some dangerous outpost of His vineyard.
Finally to Moses came the call. With all his gifts, training, resources of character and knowledge, he set out for his appointed task. From the human standpoint that task must have proved to be as discouraging as that of any other human being on record. Ridicule, persecution, treachery, misunderstanding, jealousy, disloyalty, rebellion - nothing was spared him. And how did his resources hold out? Were the gifts and learning and training wasted? The obvious answer is, "No."
So it can be with you.
For these years between, if lived in communion and obedience, will not be wasted. They will prove to be the very preparation above all others that will fit you to fulfill the works that God has before ordained that you should walk in them.
Thus the matured character, the trained mind, the disciplined body - every phase of your past experience, every unusual, abnormal happening in these strange, waiting times will be a thread in the hand of the Great Weaver woven into the pattern of a useful, effective life in His service.
That can be - must be - your consolation in this time of need.
For having thrown yourself utterly, unreservedly upon Him you are putting your confidence in Him, who alone is "able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence, of His glory with exceeding joy ..."
That is enough.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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