Your Calling
I can't tell you how many times I have heard an earnest believer in vocational ministry talk of their "calling from God." And in just as many times, if I'm being transparent, I have felt a bit less-than. Every time when I made a move toward a new venture with Jesus, there was no voice coming out of a cloud ... it just seemed like the next right step, even those times when the path was not clear and filled with obstacles. Sometimes it worked out well, and other times, a bit more rocky, but in every case I noticed the fingerprints of God ... afterwards.
A bit ago I came across an interesting paragraph from a guy named John Schuster. It has to do with the whole idea of a "call" or one's "calling." Read the following and ponder it a bit as to how your life reflects this truth.
“In the stew of everyday problems and ordinary life tasks we gain opportunities to do something about them. This, combined with the cultivation of our talents as we discover them, helps us arrive at our callings. We find ourselves summoned to make something better, to do something worthwhile. When we say yes to the summons, we are acting on our calls.”
It seems normal to sometimes overly spiritualize the idea of a calling, when it may be as simple as Schuster says. We look at our regular catalog of problems and then match them up against our abilities and motivation to address them, we are, as the quote says, "acting on our calls." The part that I would add to his thought lies in the role of the Holy Spirit.
Each believer, as promised by Jesus at the end of his ministry, enjoys the fellowship of God through the indwelling Spirit of God, and he takes on many roles in a believer's life. Here are just a few: The Spirit encourages and challenges a follower's heart toward Christlikeness and warns us when we stray. He illuminates and animates scripture for a better and clearer understanding and application. And the Spirit nudges and prompts Jesus followers to use their gifting to meet needs right in their path.
This last role of the Spirit is part of the everyday calling we experience. Some will travel far to fulfill the calling, others will be employed as vocational ministers, and most of us fulfill our calling right where we are, doing what we do. Not long after I transitioned from working in a church to teaching public school, the sense of my call was so strong I told Claudia that I felt I had done more real ministry in those first months than I had as a pastor. Calling looks like:
Ken mentoring the next generation of mechanics, or
Jennifer and Mark, and Mark and Cory working as nurses in the hospital, or
When Fred delivered packages all across rural Central Oregon, or
Forrest, who makes chemistry accessible to young community college folks, or
Austin, who builds and manages dignified living arrangements for fragile folks, or
Paul designing safe bridges for all to drive over,
Or any number of Jesus followers you can name who quietly and authentically take their faith to their work world.
Put as simply as I can, each of us who are given a new name in Jesus, gifted by the Spirit, and desiring to make the most of our lives, stand called to the ministry. The old line that if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life is true, in part. Oftentimes our work is just that ... work, and it can be hard or discouraging or frustrating or may seem without merit. However, walking your faith into your work transforms any place into a new field of ministry. And it begins with a mindset desiring to be useful to God and helpful to others. Listen, again, to Paul and a well-traveled verse out of Colossians 3.
Whatever you do, do your work with all your heart, as unto the Lord rather than for men...
Because of the situation I grew up in during college, I followed a path through seminary and was called to be a minister for a few years, then a public school teacher and coach for most of my working years. You might be called to work in an office or in a factory. You may be in school wondering what will be the best next move. It is all the same. The challenge is to best match talents to opportunity/need, then, as you work at perfecting your craft, be salt and light in your corner of the world. Understanding one's calling is a key part of maturity and will free a person to live their faith right where they find themselves. The grand part of this remains that God is at work in your life in every part of your life. And being sensitive to and responding positively to God's call to the next Jesus-adventure remains our task.
Left unsaid are the many of us who are done with our workaday lives in our professions. I do not care for the term "retired." Instead, think of being in that sweet third third of our lives. We are done with Compass-Setting (early years), and Empire-Building (working years), and now carry a lifetime of experience and wisdom and a heart that still wants to be involved with God stuff. These years may see a shrinking of our field of influence, but a deepening of our time with Jesus and with others. God is not done with you! Your (and my) calling is to be fruitful and do ministry right where we are. Don't use your employment status or age or ability as an excuse to sit on the sidelines.
Last week we saw that God has opened a way for us to be partakers of the divine nature. And if Jesus is the ultimate "inviter of others to the God-party" how much more should we do the same. Resist the temptation to diminish your gifts or scope of influence as compared to others. The God of the universe has called you to follow him, live well, and invite others to come along, right where you are. Let's go!
And a bit of music
And two groaners for the week
A little boy wanted $100 very badly and prayed for weeks, but nothing happened.
Then he decided to write God a letter requesting the $100.
When the postal authorities received the letter to God, they decided to send it to the President.
The president was so amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a $5 bill, figuring this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy.
The little boy was delighted with the $5 bill and sat down to write a thank-you note to God, which read:
Dear God: Thank you very much for sending the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you sent it through Washington, D.C., and the government deducted $95 in taxes.
__________
A trucker came into a truck stop cafe and placed his order. He said, "I want three flat tires, a pair of headlights, and a pair of running boards."
The brand new waitress, not wanting to appear stupid, went to the kitchen and said to the cook, "This guy out there just ordered three flat tires, a pair of headlights, and a pair of running boards. What does he think this place is, an auto parts store?"
"No," the cook said. "Three flat tires mean three pancakes, a pair of headlights is two eggs sunny side up, and running boards are 2 slices of crisp bacon.
"Oh, OK!" said the waitress. She thought about it for a moment and then spooned up a bowl of beans and gave it to the customer.
The trucker asked, "What are the beans for?"
She replied, "I thought while you were waiting for the flat tires, headlights and running boards, you might as well gas up!"