As I reflected on the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., there is no doubt that he was called to be a leader in the Civil Rights Movement.
What does that mean? It means that only Dr. King was qualified to do the job that he was doing at the time he was doing it. With that said, here are 8 indisputable truths about being called based on the life of Dr. King.
8 Indisputable Truths about Being “Called”
Your divine assignment is yours and yours alone
While you will have support of many on this journey, no one can perform the assignment you have been called to do. There will be imitators but they won’t be as effective or genuine in intent.
Besides, after watching movies and hearing stories about the challenges that Dr. King had to endure, would you have really wanted his job??
God doesn’t calls the qualified; he qualifies the called
Dr. King wasn’t the oldest or the wisest. In fact, he was a young buck who was relatively new to ministry.
You have to have faith
When you are called for an assignment, it is strictly a faith walk. Even though you are among the people, your instructions will be from God. And you have to move forward not knowing what you are going to do at any given time; you just know that you have to do it.
I wonder how Dr. King felt not really knowing what he was going to do on any given day?
You will work hard and it will not be easy
Dr. King ran into some amazingly unexpected situations on his journey. Sometimes they were created by people; other situations were divinely created just for him. He believed, just as other freedom and justice fighters believed, that they would overcome.
You will be front and center on the stage of life
Your calling will propel you to places you couldn’t imagine. As Dr. King studied for ministry, he was being prepared to speak in churches and in the community. I’m sure he never thought about delivering a speech to over 250,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC., which was televised all over the world.
You will have supporters and haters
As we have seen with many celebrities and entertainers – the higher you go up the ladder of success, the more supporters and haters you’ll have. Unfortunately, you won’t always know the difference.
In 2010, the Commercial Appeal newspaper did an exposé on Ernest Withers, Dr. King’s photographer and friend who doubled as an FBI informant. This dude was telling the government intimate details about the King family. It took 40 plus years for the truth about this double-faced dude to come out.
You have to go even if you don’t want to
Dr. King went into cities and situations riddled with violence, death and hatred. Very few people would willingly go into such situations, but he did so because of his calling. And I’m sure he probably had not seen the inside of a prison cell before his journey.
Your assignment will end
As you know, all things come to an end; unfortunately, you may not live to see it. And just because your assignment ended, does not mean that your work is done.
Those are 8 indisputable truths about being “called” based on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Image: commons.wikimedia.org
That “qualifies the called” one always gets me. You can be in the belly of the whale repenting one day and on your way to Nineveh to call an entire city to repentance the next. Isn’t that something? My disobedience doesn’t disqualify me. Just makes my road a little more challenging.
I love that saying, but it is very scary. Especially when you have your plan for your life and God has another. And like you said, disobedience doesn’t disqualify you. That statement and the reality are really deep on so many levels.