Stephen
Terry, Director
The
Call of a Prophet
Commentary
for the October 10, 2026, Sabbath School Lesson
"Whether you turn to the right or to the
left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in
it.'" Isaiah 30:21
Life
is full of challenges. As Gilda Radner during the formative years of the comedy
television series, "Saturday Night Live," while doing the newscast skit would
say, "It just goes to show you. It is always something!" We try to secure our
homes and our families against loss by preventive measures and insurance should
those measures be inadequate. But still, despite our best efforts things arise we
did not anticipate. Sometimes they lean in our favor, and sometimes they do
not.
When
I was younger and traveled more, such events were a matter of course. I would often
pack a gas station map to refer to for navigation when in unfamiliar territory.
Unlike modern Global Positioning System (GPS) guidance, I would need to stop
the car to do my map reading. Simply unfolding and refolding the map was an
exercise in patience. Failure to become adept at map origami meant the map
would never fit back in the glove box where it was kept until needed. Sometimes
the maps were less than accurate which required a stop at a service station to
ask the attendant for some local insight regarding road names and landmarks.
Depending
on weather and road conditions other delays might be caused by burst radiator
hoses, broken fan belts, or flat tires. When I began driving, cars were
transitioning from bias ply tires to belted radials, and every road trip seemed
to cost us one or more flats with the bias ply tires. Initially, it was hard to
justify the extra expense for radials until I finally came up with the money to
make the switch. When I discovered that I could drive hundreds, even thousands
of miles without a flat tire, the belted radials no longer seemed so costly.
Even so, as I said, it is always something. While the tires were great, I have
never forgotten sitting beside the road on a hot, muggy summer afternoon in New
Orleans, thousands of miles from home, with a broken water pump. It seems
travel will always be an adventure, but as I have aged, it has become more of a
contest as to whether the vehicle or my body will be able to stand up to the
challenges of the open road.
Of
all the changes, the cost of gasoline has been the most dramatic. Going from
paying thirty-five cents per gallon for gas to well over five dollars per
gallon was unforeseen. I remember when gas doubled to seventy cents per gallon
and people lost their minds. Many were trading in their gas guzzling muscle
cars with their high power V8 engines for little Ford Pintos and Dodge Colts to
save on travel costs. Other countries took advantage of the panic, and the
American market became flooded with cheap, four-cylinder imports that promised
twenty miles per gallon instead of the V8's eight to nine miles per gallon. At
the time I had a Plymouth Volare with a 318 cubic inch V8 that averaged about
eight miles per gallon. I traded that in for a Mitsubishi designed, poorly
engineered Dodge Colt with a malfunctioning carburetor with a sticky float
valve and a fuel filter under the chassis that would freeze solid during the
winter. I would have to pull over in the snow and warm it with my hands and
drain it and reconnect it to the fuel line when that happened. When everyone in
the car is trying to hold on until the next rest area, there should be a special
medal for all participants who survive an event like that.
I
sometimes wonder if I would have taken some of those trips if I could have
foreseen what challenges would arise. There is a type of person who would go
anyway, believing that challenges like that build character. When I was much
younger I may have at times been that person, but I am not so sure about that
anymore. In fact, experience has taught me to anticipate obstacles that my
previous naivete never could. One axiom that rules over all others in traveling
though is that one must believe in their destination. For instance, if I had
never been to New Orleans nor believed anyone who said they had, the likelihood
of my traveling there might not be zero, but it would be close. Now if someone
came and told me about their adventures at Mardi Gras, that might pique my interest.
If they invited me to come with them on their next trip, I might go along even
if I was skeptical about having a fun time. Their belief in the festival would
sustain me until I had my own experience and returned home laden with Mardi
Gras beads and stories and a newfound interest in New Orleans jazz and blues. Their
faith spawned faith of my own.
I
have traveled to some geologically diverse climates. I have traveled to the
steamy, war-torn jungles of Southeast Asia and to the frozen tundras of Alaska
where the sun does not rise in December. In North America, I have ridden
motorcycles through the deserts of the Southwest and swayed to the rhythms of Mariachis
in Mexico and to Southern Rock in Georgia. But I never went anywhere that
someone else had not gone before me. I must even give credit to the Lewis and
Clark's Expedition to the Pacific Northwest because they opened the area for
exploration where I was eventually born and grew to adulthood. I am thankful
for all those intrepid individuals who went so many places before me in the
faith that it would be worth it.
Every
journey we take, whether physical or spiritual, relies on faith that the end
point is real and simply awaits our arrival. Each of us weighs the cost versus
benefit as we travel. The experiences of those who have gone before us can be
priceless in that equation. If they travel with us or provide useful
information for the trip we refer to them as guides. Spiritually, we might call
them prophets. They may be no different than you or me with the exception they
have traveled farther than we have and can tell us something of what to expect.
In that way, they can make our journey easier and more informed than theirs
was. We consider prophets as being called by God to their
holy office, but is there anyone God does not call? If that is what makes a
prophet, then we are all prophets for God calls each of us to love as he loves,
and in loving, find our creative purpose.
Sadly,
it is possible to become confused about that purpose. If we feel we are the
fixers who must fix everything until it meets with what we feel to be God s
demanding nature, we can easily become soured on our task as Elijah did with
Jezebel. A nap and some rest put him back on track, and he resumed his work in
the strength of God's love. But if we wander from the path of love, we can
cause tremendous harm to others by shattering their perception of God as
compassionate and merciful and whose loving kindness draws each of us to him.
The understanding that we have traveled in a certain spiritual direction others
have not yet seen, heard, or felt can make us condescend toward them as though
God favors us because we speak a certain way, dress a certain way, eat or
abstain from certain foods, but God places the same value on each person on
earth. And a prophet is nothing more than someone in a loving relationship with
God and their fellow human beings who has faith in those relationships and experience
that validates that faith.
When
our granddaughters are playing with Legos when they visit us, based on what
they have read of the instructions, the experiences they have had in building
before, and the mental image of what they expect the final object to be, they
proceed with their creation. As I watch, the beginning reveals little of their intent,
but as each plastic brick goes into place it becomes clear that some are
destined to become little Lego people, trees and flowers, vehicles, castles,
spaceships, or many other projects that are limited only by their imaginations.
It is as though a voice in their minds is directing their creative energy and
inspiring them to complete something that is partly Lego and partly the fruit
of their minds and inspiration. When the pieces do not go together as expected,
the Legos have the flexibility for them to make changes that will better express
that inspiration.
This
is how it is with God's people. We are identified as those who keep the
commandments of God and have the Spirit whch inspires the prophets. (Revelation
12:17, 19:10)
It was Jesus' testimony that promised the advocating Spirit to those who are
his. (John
14:16, 26, 15:26)
The commandments of God are that we are to love God and love our neighbor (Matthew
22:37-40), even our neighbor who is our enemy. (Matthew
5:43-45) There is no limit on who may be a prophet of God, a spiritual
guide. A prophet will have a heart filled with love and a burning desire within
to light the world with that love, not to burn the world and its evil to ashes.
They will want to draw all they can with the love of God that as many as possible
may be embraced in God's loving arms. They may even pray that Jesus' return
will be delayed that many more might be loved into the fold. (2
Peter 3:9)