Apostle Paul had an encounter with Jesus Christ on the roadside, which set him on the course of freedom from ignorance and guilt.
Paul became the kind of person God created him to be.
Jesus called him, gifted and commissioned him to share the gospel and live by the gospel that transformed him.
Paul lived by the Gospel not as a duty or responsibility which he had to fulfil by returning to Christ for what He had done for him.
Our calling is also a gift of God. It is an incredible blessing for which we respond to God in gratitude.
God gifts us hence our calling is based on our gift. This satisfies our deep need to be creatively useful. It also gives us an opportunity to invest our energies in something of significance.
There is much more to life than merely striving to achieve security, identity and prosperity and finally end up in the grave. Paul knew his calling and so even when he was in prison because of his witness to the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ, he could say, “for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil.1:21).
We are created, redeemed and gifted by Christ to spend our lives on something that matters. And where will we find this?
We find meaning in our life on earth and not in escape from it. We are called to work in the midst of suffering and conflict.
We follow the example of Jesus Christ, who loved and sacrificed Himself for a wayward humanity. He cared for the suffering and stood in solidarity with the victims of injustice.
He called people to a life of repentance and faith in Him. Living by the gift of the Gospel is to follow the ways of God in the world, just like Jesus.