Missing the call due to not understanding that God’s voice is the voice of improvement

The most common reason that Christians fail to answer the call of Christ is that they fail to notice it. The more you believe that your religion spares you from the need for improvement, the less likely it will be that you notice and act appropriately in the situations that provide an opportunity to do so. Many who proclaim to be staunch atheists do more to improve themselves and others than many professed Christians. Those who artificially filter their actions in life by whether it falls under religion or not are doomed to an extremely limited relationship with God and far less joy here and hereafter than they would otherwise have. While the Lord’s invitations can come in the form of an established church teaching, or something you notice while reading your scriptures, or an idea you receive during prayer, most of them come in the form of a situation providing an opportunity for improvement.

Rather than see improvement as something different than or only a part of the calling of Christ, it is more correct to invert this— invitations to improve are precisely what show us how Jesus is. Jesus calls you in his name by providing you with an opportunity to change how you think, feel, or act after a better option is made known to you.

The voice of the Lord is the voice of improvement. Because all good things come from and lead to God, all invitations to improve are a call in the name of Christ. All of God’s creation is designed to invite us to become better than we are.¹ All people are called by the name of Christ: in every problem they face, every question they have, every example of improvement they see, and every choice better than those they have hitherto made. The desires you have, the challenges you face as you fulfill them, every interaction you have with everyone else, and all things besides are all designed to lead you to recognize and make use of opportunities for improvement.