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| Discovering the True Call January 2012 Newsletter Message We hear many calls in our life: calls on the phone, calls to come in for dinner, calls to merge with traffic, calls to the principal’s office, calls to board a plane, calls to see the doctor. Amidst all these very specific demands from every corner of society, you are also often asked (by religious professionals like myself) to figure out what God is calling you to do. What is your purpose? What are you supposed to be doing? Many people spend years and years searching for the answer to this question of God’s task for their lives. We imagine there is this one job or career or hobby that would bring to your life that elusive happiness and fulfillment you have been missing all these years. Like a college student struggling to choose a major, we place pressure on ourselves to discern the divine call that makes sense of your life, revealing your true purpose. Here is the rub. While we are praying and searching and asking others for the answer to our vocational questions, God has already provided the answer. While we are dreaming about that one job or career that will set all things right, God is waking us up to see the truth. When asking God what is my purpose, God responds “Love me and neighbor as yourself.” You might think that this is a cop out, that this is not a real answer to all those tough questions you have been pondering for years. Yet God doesn’t necessarily see your “call” as one specific profession or occupation you will bring total fulfillment but rather a way of approaching all of your life no matter what you are doing. It is true that God calls us to do specific things like farming or engineering or teaching or building yet God does not see these jobs as the end-all-be-all of our calling. These jobs provide us an opportunity to live the ultimate calling of Jesus to “love God and neighbor as yourself.” The famous reformer Martin Luther confirms this point “We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow.” Simply put: what we do is sacred and well-pleasing to God, not because of what we are doing but, because in the work, we are living out our faith. No matter what you are doing, whether it is your dream job or just the opposite, you are called to be a Christian serving. God gives you an overall purpose and will leave the details to you. This means that God is calling you in all that you do, whether it is washing clothes, doing yard work, working at a job you hate, working at a job you love, completing paperwork, or waiting tables. Following God’s call, in each of those situations, could be something life changing (like realizing you need to go back to school to pursue a new career) or something small seemingly insignificant (showing grace to person who is struggling). Moment to moment living by that commandment to love God and neighbor as yourself takes on different shapes and sizes throughout your life. There are times for grand gestures and times for small steps and everything in between in living the way God has asked you. How this call is expressed in your life is and will be always shifting and changing. One day it will sneak up on you and the next it will be staring you in the face. The next six weeks, we will be hearing different call stories throughout the Bible. We will see the uniqueness and diversity of call stories from strange and unusual characters. As we explore this understanding of God’s call, turn your hearts to God’s ultimate purpose for your life. Put away those fears and doubts that cause you to search endlessly for some career salvation and embrace God’s invitation to love him and love your neighbor as yourself. In the peace of Christ, Pastor Gray |
