Your Real Calling Is To Be Godlike

For days, the Communist guards would beat the imprisoned pastor, help him gain strength with good food, and then beat him again. He was to be systematically beaten to death, but not a quick death. They wanted him to suffer.

    Captain Reck said one day as he beat the pastor, “I am God. I have the power of life and death over you. The one who is in heaven cannot decide to keep you in life. Everything depends upon me. If I wish, you live or die. I am God!” 

    The pastor responded calmly. “You don’t know what a deep thing you have said. You were not created to be a torturer, a man who kills. You were created to become like God, with his life in your heart. Many who have been persecutors like you have come to realize, as the apostle Paul did, that it is shameful for a man to commit atrocities. They can do much better things. Believe me, Captain Reck, your real calling is to be Godlike, not to be God. You can have the character of God, not a torturer.”

    Reck pretended not to hear the Christian’s words, and he continued beating the pastor for his faith. However, he couldn’t stop thinking about his calling. Eventually, on bended knee, Reck accepted Christ into his heart.

Every caterpillar is really a butterfly, if it develops correctly. If not, it may continue to live. However, it is something it was not intended to be. Like-wise, our true calling as humans is to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and develop Christlike character. Without Christ, we may still be very accomplished with several credits to our names. We may become lots of admirable things—a successful businessperson, a loving mother, a devoted dad. Yet if we miss our true calling, we never become the person we were originally created to be. A caterpillar is interesting. But a butterfly far surpasses it in beauty and ability. Have you had a life of worldly success, yet missed your true calling?