No Cold Callers

This week, I’ve been spending a lot of time out on the streets for the Big Collection. I must admit, this is not a part of the year I particularly look forward to. Walking from house to house, asking for donations, avoiding dogs, hearing all the excuses, waiting for the house where the elusive £5 note will come from, are all things I’d quite happily leave alone. Of course, this collecting is an important act to support the community work of The Salvation Army, and when you do get the big donations, or a friendly smile and a “I’ll go find my purse”, you feel uplifted and it keeps you going through the no answers and refusals.

One feature of collecting is seeing stickers in people’s windows announcing “NO COLD CALLERS”. This started me thinking about the way we interact with God. Cold callers come without appointments or prior contact, trying to rouse interest in products or organisations, and seek something from them, usually a sale. The question that sprung to my mind was ‘Is God a cold caller?’. Does God call upon us without invitation and demand our lives from us?

I imagine this is what a number of people (churched and un-churched) may picture; God is there, demanding our commitment, our lifestyles, our money, our time, etc. They see him cold calling on the door of their lives regularly, and often at the most inconvenient times, to speak to them about his concerns and how they need to give him more.

I believe this is a very inaccurate picture of God, and this image arises from misconceptions and projections based on the behaviour of some Christians. I am not denying that God has certain standards of living that, as Christians, we should follow. I am saying that God does intrude on our lives any more than we invite him into. When we invite God into our lives, we are giving him permission to show us how to live. We then choose to follow his guidance out of love for him and an act of worship. This is what is meant by the verses in Romans 12:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

(The Message, Romans 12:1-2)

Sometimes, God will grab our attention through a sermon, song, or conversations with others, but this only happens as we build a relationship with him. Cold callers do not have any relationship with those they meet; God has a relationship with us. If you view God as a cold caller, how is your relationship with him? How much time have you spent with God, getting to know him and talking to him? Cold callers are after a result that will benefit them; God wants a relationship with us because it benefits us.

Do you view God as a ‘cold caller’ in your life?

Thoughts/comments always appreciated!