Loving Some More

I’ve always played favorites. From ranking my favorite albums to making lists of the best football players. Even as a kid I tried to get my mom to pick who her favorite kid was (of course me).

Recently, I gave a talk on Romans 15:14–22. The basic point of the passage is Paul telling the Romans why he hasn’t been there to visit them. The passage got me thinking about the idea of playing favorites. Part of me thinks it’s not “Christian”. Shouldn’t we love everyone the same? Is it wrong for me to like some folks more than others — to play favorites?

In the passage, Paul sees his call to Gentiles as something higher than his call to everyone else. This is not unique to Paul. There are many people in scripture that have a call to a certain people. Abraham, Moses, Nehemiah and many others were called specifically by God to a certain people.

Paul prioritizes the Gentiles and it causes him to not see other people. In many ways, living out a calling is about making choices. If we are called to a specific people group then our choices will consistently be for them. We can’t be called to someone and never make choices for them. Our lives should reflect our calling.

We are at our best when we are for someone.

When I was on staff with InterVarsity I felt the weight of spiritual responsibility for those campuses. It was my duty to know the spiritual goings on in those places. I remember when September 11th happened and feeling the burden to respond spiritually as a campus community. The largest turnout we ever had in my 10 years on campus was the night of 9/11 when we invited the campus to respond in prayer.

In the passage, Paul uses some strong words to describe himself and those that he is called to. The phrase that sticks out most to me is “priestly duty”. Paul sees his call to the Gentiles as a priestly duty.

This is a way we can imitate Jesus. Jesus was called to the whole world — He is our High Priest. We can’t be that, but we can be like Jesus to a few. We can give of ourselves for a few. Our highest calling — our priestly duty — is to be called to someone.

Who are you called to? If you don’t know the answer to that question, how do you figure it out? There is no shortage of people to love — how do we decide?

I think there are three areas in your life to look at if you don’t know who you are called to:

AFFINITY|OPPORTUNITY|NEED

• Affinity — Affinity is about drawing close to something or someone you already love.
• Opportunity — Opportunity is about loving someone or something already in your path. You have access, you just need to figure out how.
• Need — Need is about loving someone or something because you already see there is a need.

The Underground is a family of sent ones. We are a gathering of folks that are each fully called and committed to a few. I am convinced that we are not called to love everyone the same but we are called to love some more.