Worthy of the Calling

         As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;  one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1-6)

        What does it mean to live a worthy life? Since you’ve already read the passage above, you know where this is going, but to be honest, those attributes (to which we will return) aren’t what I think of when I think of worthy. My problem is the same kind I had with the word noble. When I went to see Fellowship of the Ring with a friend, she commented about how noble the characters were.

      “Noble?” I thought. “They’re filthy.” The incongruity of those thoughts started me thinking about what it means to be noble. I wouldn’t have said that it meant traveling through a swamp and over mountains without getting your fingernails dirty, but that was my reaction.

In a similar way, I have some ideas about what “worthy (of the calling)” means. The first thing that comes to mind is courageous. Other terms include honest, steadfast, noble, righteous, holy. And what all of those have in common in my mind is that they are big and strong. Someone who is all those things could say, “Look at me.”

But now when we look at the list of what Paul had learned about being worthy of the calling, we get another list:

Humble

Gentle

Patient

Bearing with one another in Love

Keeping the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace

United in God.

        Ugh… it all sounds like dirt under the fingernails stuff. I find myself thinking, “But, God, I just spent four years as a caregiver. I am grateful that I was able to do so, but isn’t it time for me to emerge from the swamp? In other words, “Is it my turn yet?”

          And God’s answer, it seems is, “It has been being your turn. You don’t understand. I like dirty fingernails. They mean you’re putting the self to death. When it’s time, I’ll wash them like I washed the disciples’ feet.” And then He adds, “And tear- or sweat-tracked faces are just as important as dirty fingernails.”

         Lord, make me worthy of the calling.