Calling All Christians for One Christian Calling: Siblings for Christ {in(RL) Guest Post}

Can you believe in(RL) starts this Friday, April 26th? If you haven't registered yet there's still time to join this free women's conference that happens via meetups in communities all over the world. In honor of in(RL) I'm featuring a series of guest posts from some of my real life friends this week. Enjoy!

Christians talk about hearing the call of God on their lives. There is the missionary call, the call to ministry, a call to stay at home, a call to a profession.

The longer I live and the more I read Scripture the clearer it is to me that God gives every Christian one call - the same exact call.

"For those God foreknew he also predestined

to be conformed to the image of his Son,

that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters."

Romans 8:29, NIV

The Christian call is a call to become like Jesus Christ. That's it. Every other sense of call fits within the parameters of becoming more like Jesus. God has put us on a pathway, a pathway toward his son.

I can imagine Jesus sitting around with his father, in eternity past, saying, “Baba, it’s cool hanging out with you and the Spirit and all, but it would be nice to have some brothers and sisters around the stratosphere.”

That would be you and I.

Do you think of Jesus as a brother?

Can we conceive that God is populating heaven from different parts of the planet and various ethnicities to create one big replica-like family? Do we like the idea of a homogeneous family comprised of heterogeneous blood lines?

Like it or not, God's plan all along was to give Jesus siblings.

We may be too busy to think about our new and developing family. We've got people to save, budgets to build, and buildings to erect.

But how much effort do we put into our own personal and spiritual growth as we travel our diverse paths to the pearly gates?

We tend to focus on what distinguishes us while God tends to focus on what unites us: Jesus, and being like him.

We are not all ministers, missionaries, or moms managing the home. We are unique. Specially gifted. Finding our own way. All on the same road to Christ-likeness.

Our one true calling.

I’m grateful that I can participate in this calling of conformity because on my own I would choose a different path. I’d rather be a basketball star in the NBA or a famous writer who touches millions. But God had a better plan for me: to become like my brother, Jesus.

Does anything else matter?

This is the one calling that I am sure every brother and sister of Jesus has to agree with, has to go along with, has to have a hand in fulfilling. Is every one a missionary? No.

Pastor? No. 

Parent? No. 

Plumber? No. 

Church planter? No. 

Friend? No. 

Conformer to Christ? Yes.

We call it sanctification. God the Father calls it adoption. God the Spirit calls it a down payment that guarantees our inheritance. Jesus?

He calls me "bro".

Taking on mid-life with a coffee snob strategy, Brian enjoys basketball, social media and nature.  Brian lives in Orlando, Florida; calls Denver, Colorado home; grew up in Indiana; and considers himself a world citizen. Brian is married to a lovely wife and together they are raising three wonderful young men and longing for their daughter in heaven.  The Stankich family has lived and worked previously in Macedonia and Egypt. Follow Brian's insightful and practical writings here.