Called

I post this on Canada day. I love Canada day, I love celebrating my country. I am among the world’s top 1%! Wow!

Yet I still find it so easy to compare my life with those around me. Nicer homes in newer neighbourhoods, people who vacation to wonderful hotspots, folks that win the lottery… None of those things are bad. But sometimes I feel unsatisfied with my life when I think about them – and that is wrong.

So sometimes I need to remind myself that I am not called to compare my life with others. I am called to love others. Below is probably one of the most challenging quotes I’ve ever heard. And no matter what people think of me, I definitely don’t live up to it.

“Not called!” did you say? “Not heard the call,” I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world.” – William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army

So this Canada Day, join me in celebrating our great homeland and reminding ourselves and others how good we have it.