This past Sunday, my teen-aged daughter felt “the call” following a message by Dr. Jerry Haag of Baylor University. It was invitation time in our church service; I was sitting on the platform with the church orchestra, playing the invitation hymn, when a fellow musician whispered, “Did you know your daughter came down the aisle?”
I thought “Again?” She has already walked the aisle several times. She’s made her profession of faith, been baptized, joined the church, went to youth camp and re-dedicated her life to Christ. I thought she was confused. What else is there?
As it turns out, a lot. She told me she wanted to make public her devotion to Christ.
I’ve always been wary when someone “dedicates their life to Christ.” A foreign missionary spoke at my church when I was young and warned us sternly: “If you give your life to Christ, you had better be serious about it and you’d better do whatever He tells you to do.” I thought that you only had one choice: go to some God-forsaken land and devote every waking minute to converting people to Christianity.
This never clouded the vision of my innocent and not-quite-mature daughter. Only 14 years old, she isn’t afraid or confused. She feels called to devotion. At first, I thought her choice of words was wrong. But now I think she makes a lot of sense.
She is DEVOTED to God. She doesn’t know where or when or how she will serve God; she just knows she is devoted to him. Devotion is “strong attachment (to) or affection (for a cause, person, etc.) marked by dedicated loyalty.” It is “the act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action.”
These days there are many choices for a vocation in Christian service. Missions, church work, ministry, counseling, education, etc. all offer opportunities. But being devoted to God is a call we can all answer. “Binding ourselves to a course of action” is a new way of looking at it.
Action may come in different ways; I have no idea what my daughter will be when she grows up. She may be a student, a wife, a mother, a teacher, a musician, a social worker. But whatever she does, she will be devoted. Her actions will take on new meaning because she will bind herself to Christ.
"Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." Proverbs 3:3
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