Call Your Shot
I am not a good pool player. But I have played with people who are masters — and the difference between us becomes clear the moment someone calls their shot. A reflection on Isaiah 40:3–5.
Isaiah 40:3–5
Phrases that spoke to me today:
• a voice cries out
• prepare the way of the Lord
• make straight in the desert a highway for our God
• the glory of the Lord shall be revealed
Applying the Word to My Life:
I am not a good pool player. I can scrap together a few decent shots, and occasionally something incredible happens — the kind that looks like it was planned. But it definitely wasn't. It is more random motion than anything I am intentionally doing. I have played with people who are masters — who learned the game young and know every angle. If you put my best shot next to one of theirs, you might not be able to tell them apart.
But everything changes when you call your shot. You point to the pocket before you shoot. Now the identical-looking result means something completely different. One is luck. The other is a plan.
God called his shot through the prophet Isaiah. He pointed to the pocket seven hundred years before the ball dropped. A voice in the wilderness, crying out: prepare the way. Make straight the path. The glory of the Lord is coming.
That isn't decoration. It isn't a vague hope that happened to line up with John's story. It was announced centuries before John was born. The Incarnation was not a hastily assembled rescue mission. It was a deep and intentional plan, worked out in full, with the cost already known.
John's entire life was a crucial part of that plan. He went to the wilderness. He defined himself by what he was not. He found joy in stepping back when the crowds moved on. He told a king the truth and died for it. Every bit of it was in service of one thing — to prepare the way. He knew the pocket. He played every shot toward it.
Most of us live the way I play pool. We look at what is in front of us and take the best available shot. We are not bad people. We are just reactive — moving through life without a clear sense of where any of it is supposed to go. John shows us the other way: a life with a named purpose, lived with intention, pointed toward something beyond himself.
We are called to the same thing. Not John's exact mission, but the same quality of it. We don't have to be the light — just a voice pointing toward it.
The question the week leaves us with is simple. We know there is a plan. We know what we are called to. The only thing left is whether we are willing to live it.
My Response for Today:
Today I will name one thing I am called to — and live it with purpose.