Sitings of the "Call" in Childhood

I've just completed reading a really good book entitled "You, Inc." by Author Burke Hedges, and in the book, the author mentions the story from the "Lion King" when the young lion king, Simba is living in exile trying to avoid responsibilities when he sees a vision of his late father, King Mufasa. In the vision, King Mufasa challenges his son to take his rightful place as King and become what he was destined to become. He said "Simba, you have forgotten who you are. Look inside yourself. You are more than what you have become".

After reading the illustration, I began to question my own life, which many times throughout I have wondered "am I fulfilling what God has called me to", or "am I completely off track?". I've done several things in my life of 55 years now. After graduating from college with an Accounting degree and working in and out of accounting positions all throughout my career, to Pioneering & Pastoring two Churches, as well as working in ministry positions as an Evangelist, Youth Pastor, High School Boys Athletic Director/Coach, I can say I've had questions like many today; "Have I, did I, am I in the will of God?".

Through it all, I have come to realize there is an entrepreneurial spirit within me, and it started when I was a child. I remember days of organizing basketball teams on my driveway. I would gather friends to form track clubs where we would race other teams from another street around the block, using sticks as batons. I would help to assist in getting baseball and football games together with kids from all over the neighborhood. I can't honestly say I was the best student in school, really far from it, but I can say, God began to shape my love for sports, activity, athletics, and coaching from my childhood up. As a Senior, I was voted by my peers "Most Athletic", not best athlete, but "most" Athletic. I wanted to play everything. Up until my junior year in High School, I played basketball, baseball, football, and ran track. I narrowed it down my junior year to Baseball & Football, where I received awards in both. After High School I took a job over the summer with a company called "Nautilus", when it was a gym, not just a brand. I was an Personal Trainer for that summer, then college started, and the rest you've heard about already, which all lead full circle to the development of Serving Fit, an organization promoting becoming FIT in our Faith, Family, Fitness & Finances,while SERVING Jesus.

I say all this to bring up the possibility that God has given you the gifts & talents to do what He has called and equipped you to do, and it was given to you in your childhood. I think of the story of Moses; protected as a baby by his Hebrew mother, raised in an Egyptian home, called of God on the back side of the desert to deliver the very people he ruled. Has God given you tools, education, family ties, relationships that have helped to equip you for the purpose He has called you too? I think so. "Simba, you have forgotten who you are. Look inside yourself. You are more than what you have become".

Don't chase another man's purpose. Be a God Chaser, and fulfill the purpose He has destined you for!

David Summerlin
Serving Fit