Incidentally, I was called (no pun intended) at the ninth hour to speak for Sunday Night Service. It was youth sunday. My topic was the Call and the Commitment. I talked about Genesis 6:3 that says, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of God". Basically, I was explaining to the young people that before the Lord ever called Noah to this huge assignment, Noah lived about 480 years in anonymity, and remained faithful to everything he knew about the true God, despite the fact that EVERYONE around him was straying from it. I was stressing the importance of staying faithful to God and focusing on obeying him every day instead of focusing on reaching some status of greatness. Noah then had to be faithful in building the ark for 120 more years, although it seemed to be an absolutely absurd undertaking, and I'm sure many of those days were not buzzing with the initial "excitement" of the call. But his practiced faithfulness for the first 480 years I'm sure gave Noah the experience to know that God is faithful, and that gave him the strength to walk out each day in faith.
Ultimately, it was Noah's lifestyle of faithfulness, that resulted in him finding favor with God. The gifts and callings are nothing to boast and brag about because we didn't earn them and truth be told, we don't even deserve them. Our part in this thing is our commitment, and if that is lacking, we've really done nothing at all to please God.
