Living Out Our Calling with Boldness

Oftentimes, ambassadors are challenged with delivering difficult messages.

During their visits, resistance can occur and it is in those moments that they must remain true to the convictions that they represent. For the Apostle Paul, his resolve to share the Gospel at any cost literally landed him in prison and the incredible part is that didn’t waiver his passion in the slightest.

For many Christians today, particularly in the West, this is difficult to visualize as there are limited places in the world where you personally face persecution for sharing the Gospel with others. While those areas exist, most of the time it isn’t fear of personal harm that holds us back from being the ambassador we are called to be, in fact, it is the fear of what others will think about us that paralyzes us from moving forward.

It is amazing how the power of what others think about us impacts the decisions we make. When the thoughts creeping in regarding what others will say begin to overpower the conviction from the Holy Spirit to speak Truth boldly we find ourselves at a unique junction. Do we go with the flow and stay silent or should we speak the Truth knowing that it may result in personal judgment?

Probably one of the greatest analogies regarding how we are to be ambassadors is seen through the lens of the classic chocolate chip cookie. Before you get the awesomeness of the final cookie there is a genesis that includes basic ingredients. Traditionally, that looks like white sugar; brown sugar; flour; salt; eggs; a leavening agent such as baking soda; a fat, typically butter or shortening; vanilla extract; and chocolate chips.

As the process begins the primary ingredients are blended together. The flour, sugar, eggs, and alike begin to lose their distinctness and together they form the cookie dough. At this point it all looks the same and here is where the ambassadors enter the scene. The chocolate chips do not blend into the dough, they mix in, and they keep their distinctness as they interact with the other ingredients.

Then the dough goes into the oven, where the heat turns up, and they remain intact. Sure, they may flex a bit, but at the end of the day, the chocolate chips are the only distinguishable part of the final product - not to mention the best part.

That should be our goal as ambassadors for Christ. Let us aim to be the chocolate chips in the cookie dough of life. Being an ambassador means that we must speak Truth boldly and never run from our responsibility to serve others by sharing the Good News of the Gospel.

Questions to Consider

1. What fears or concerns often hold us back from boldly living out our calling as ambassadors for Christ, and how can we overcome them?
2. How does the analogy of the chocolate chip cookie illustrate the role of an ambassador for Christ, and what does it mean to maintain our distinctness while interacting with others?