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In 1 Corinthians 9:16, the Apostle Paul says that he is ‘compelled’ to preach the Gospel. This expression is fascinating, as it gives us some unique insights into Paul’s psychology and spirituality, namely, how he experienced God’s calling on his life. By gaining some insights into Paul’s experience of being called by God, we can gain some insights into our own experiences of being called.

I draw some parallels between Paul’s experience of a compelling calling and my own experience. I myself feel compelled to preach. And when opportunities to preach are lacking, I feel discombobulated and distressed. I think there is a difference between God’s call, which is an objective calling from God, and the compelling call, which is our subjective experience of God’s objective calling pressing upon us.

And so, I am calling on Christians to seek the compelling call – that sense of God’s call being insistent and persistent, irresistible and urgent.

Drawing on an expression used in Isaiah 40, I ask: Do you not know? Have you not heard?

1. That you are deeply and passionately loved by God.
2. That God has a unique purpose for you in the world, that draws on the whole of who you are.
3. That the Holy Spirit of God equips and empowers us to live out this purpose, together with God and within a community of faith.
4. That God desires us to have a deeper and more profound subjective experience of that compelling calling.
5. And that God deeply and passionately loves the whole world, and desires to be reconciled to everyone, and wants us to participate with God in achieving that.

It is my prayer that we – Christians – become a more purposeful and invested community, working in partnership with God, to spread the Gospel message of the Kingdom of God.

In this message, I recite a poem, which has been meaningful to me for more than a dozen years. It is called ‘What is this seed?’, in a book by Edward Tyler entitled Prayers in Celebration of the Turning Year (1978).

What is this seed that thou has planted in me
that I must bring to fruit
or pass my life in sterile waste?

What is this gift that thou hast given me
that I must in turn pass on
or it will destroy me?

What is it you are asking me to do
that I must do
or know my life defeated?

I ask, in Christ’s name
Amen.