When we hear the collect speak of the call of Christ to us today, we tend to think of those calls Paul mentions in our epistle lesson, calls to serve the Church as apostles, prophets, teacher and the list goes on, or perhaps as monks and nuns in religious life. It is easy to imagine THE CALL in capital letters and assume it is meant for those others who are different from us, special in some way. But, in fact, God calls us, each and all, to incarnate divine love in our daily life. As the old gospel hymn with words by Mrs. Cecil F. Alexander puts it: “Jesus calls us; o’er the tumult of our life’s wild restless sea, day by day his sweet voice soundeth saying ‘Christian, follow me.’ “ Take note of that “day by day” phrase. That emphasizes that calls come to us daily to be Love here and now. Perhaps something as simple as the nudges we sometimes get to call a friend, to take a treat to someone who is ill, to visit a shut-in, to invite a neighbor over are our calls for that particular day. Following in Jesus’ footsteps doesn’t mean we all will hear the call in our day to “bring good news to the poor . . . proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free”—although some, no doubt, will. For most of us, our calls generally are more mundane: to be a diligent worker, a listening friend, a dedicated doctor, a willing volunteer, an innovative teacher, an attentive student, a loving parent, a supportive spouse, a patient caregiver for an elderly parent, for example. No matter how or when the calls may come, we can expect them, as the hymn points out, to be “in the tumult of our life’s wild restless sea.” Regardless of the challenges the calls present, we can trust the Divine to provide the resources, the strength, the courage we need to answer the call. As the adage says: “God doesn’t call the equipped; God equips the called.”