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WATCH: Sisters Sing Bone-Chilling Easter Rendition of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’

The young sisters from Fort Frances, Ontario sing an Easter rendition of Leonard Cohen's famous "Hallelujah," that is so beautiful, it'll bring tears to your eyes.

What Is Maundy Thursday?—How to Celebrate During Holy Week

As we celebrate Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter, you may start to wonder, what is Maundy Thursday? Three days before Easter, we come to Maundy Thursday. "Maundy" comes from the Latin word "mandatum," meaning command, order, or commission.

Abby & Brittany: Conjoined Twin Abby Hensel is Married!

They’re the most famous conjoined twins in the world, and now Abby Hensel, of the duo Abby and Brittany, is now married! 

The Danger of Following Your “Calling”

I don’t like to say that God “calls me” anymore.

When I graduated from a Christian college, I believed I would change the world.  I was determined to be useful, significant and different.  I wasn’t going to join the throng of sell-outs who eventually move to comfy white-picket homes in the suburbs and attend churches where conversations afterward are meaningless and trivial because I was called to be a missionary—the highest calling a Christian can have.

Every decision I made propelled me on that path.  College?  A place that would offer overseas opportunities.  Major?  Something useful, but that could also slide under the radar if I went to a closed country that was anti-Christian.  First job?  Teaching in inner-city Chicago until a door opened up to go overseas (obviously).  First chance to go abroad?  China, because closed countries are the place to be if you really love Jesus.

I finally had the chance to answer God’s call on my life to serve Him as a missionary after a few years of teaching in the states.  I sold my car, quit my job and moved to China.  Yes, I was lonely at times, but I was finally doing what I was called to do, so I loved knowing that I was living such a high calling and making a difference in the world.  And then something tragic happened:  I fell in love with an actor in Chicago, who was not “called to missions” (careful about short trips back home when you have your guard down).

And I had to face some hard questions.

What if God hadn’t called me to missions after all?

What if I was being just a tad prideful about my “calling”?

What if I was worshipping my call?

When I made the decision to move back to the states and get engaged, I felt like a failure.  Though God had made it unmistakably clear that this was the man He intended for me, I still struggled with all the demons in my head yelling at me that I was selling out by leaving the mission field.

But God.

He wanted more for me.  He wanted me to step down off my pedestal and walk among the “uncalled” for a while.  He wanted me to untangle my identity, unwinding all the programming I had received that led me to believe that I was “more,” that I was doing “more” and being “more” than other Christians.  The lies.  That my life was somehow more meaningful because I was serving Him in another country.  That I was special because I had that call in my life.

Leslie Verner
Leslie Verner
Leslie Verner is a goer learning how to stay. She traveled widely and spent five years in China before returning to the U.S. to marry a theatre actor. Leslie writes regularly about faith, justice, family and cross-cultural issues at www.scrapingraisins.com and elsewhere on the web. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

WATCH: Sisters Sing Bone-Chilling Easter Rendition of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’

The young sisters from Fort Frances, Ontario sing an Easter rendition of Leonard Cohen's famous "Hallelujah," that is so beautiful, it'll bring tears to your eyes.

What Is Maundy Thursday?—How to Celebrate During Holy Week

As we celebrate Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter, you may start to wonder, what is Maundy Thursday? Three days before Easter, we come to Maundy Thursday. "Maundy" comes from the Latin word "mandatum," meaning command, order, or commission.

Abby & Brittany: Conjoined Twin Abby Hensel is Married!

They’re the most famous conjoined twins in the world, and now Abby Hensel, of the duo Abby and Brittany, is now married!