When a Calling Will Not Let You Go

This week's news carries the story of the Rev. Dr. Molly Marshall, a theologian, educator and preacher who now leads United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Her public role is a useful doorway into an old question: what does it mean to be called?

Scripture returns to this question often. To Jeremiah, God says: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5). The words come before any achievement. The call rests on God's knowing, not on the person's readiness.

Paul writes in the same register: "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). The verse does not erase difference. It sets every difference beneath a shared belonging.

Sit with two questions. Where do you sense you have been set apart, and for what? And what have you assumed disqualifies you that Scripture may not?

A calling is rarely loud. Often it is only persistent. Test it in prayer, in Scripture, and with people who know you well.