Growing Up in the South

"Calling" on Jesus

When you are born south of the Mason-Dixon Line, you tend to get a different perspective on life. Down here in Georgia we gaze from inside our little bubble and pretend that everyone in the world calls each other darlin’ and spends Sunday at Church, followed by a large Sunday dinner.

One of the first important lessons of my life was the admission to myself that everyone isn’t just like me and that is not only okay, is a good thing! God created each of us in His image, but as different as each snowflake! Oh snowflakes, now there is another Georgia type story I could tell ya, but I digress.

While working in Conference Calling in Atlanta, Georgia in my early 20s, I was fortunate to work with some fabulous people from throughout the world. Even over the phone, folks could tell that I was from Georgia and very often narrow it down right to an accent from the Atlanta area. It never failed that someone would have a very positive comment about my accent and it would begin a dialog of asking questions about the South and open me up to ask questions about their neck of the woods as well. In that short period of time I became ‘well traveled’ and developed a sensitivity about other cultures and really begin to see the world more like God sees it.

Up until that time, I tried very hard to hide my southern slang. I was a bit ashamed of this accent, but it was meeting and greeting people from other cultures and even other parts of the America and how they embraced and celebrated my tiny southern voice that assisted in the beginning of being “me”. The me that God created me to be.

On one particular occasion while training a new operator, she picked up the phone to dial an attendee on a conference call. She was brand new to the position and very nervous! Trying hard not to show her nerves, she sat straight up her chair, adjusted her headset and dialed the phone number, with all the confidence she could muster, she asked for Jesus Suarez and pronounced it EXACTLY the way it looked! (In the Hispanic culture it is phonetically, Hey-Zoos.) Right then and there I absolutely DIED laughing at the beauty of it all.

It wasn’t until much later that I realized something very important. Jesus is the very same, but very different for us all. He is even different depending on what is going on in your life at that very minute. He may be The Healer, The Counselor, The Mediator, The Great I Am, The Father, The Son or The Holy Spirit…should I go on? No matter how you say His name, it is clearly important to Him that we call Him, call Him often and call on Him without ceasing.

Hebrew 3:1 tells us “Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus.