I came across this on one of the blogs I follow. It has just blown me away. This is exactly what Bible study should lead to. Read about it here. This is a church that knows what it means to be church.
I would suggest that the question we should be asking ourselves is "how can we serve?" not "what are we called to do?" Let me unpack this a bit. I do believe that people and groups can be called to specific tasks. I have felt called in the work I do with GLAD. I have listened to several others describe their call. I don't think that one can decide to "go find what he/she/they are called to do" . I think the call finds you. At first it sounds unbelievable. Then you wrestle with it. It wins. Then you live with it for awhile, in an uneasy "now-that-I've-got-it-what-am-I-going-to-do-with-it" kind of way. Then you begin to see how you can live it out and what you need to do to be equipped for the journey. Being called is very much about what one should be doing. Looking for your call makes it very much about you. That gets in the way. I do think it is important to do what you are called to do -- I just don't think you can decide to go find it.
We can look for ways to serve. As we open our eyes and hearts to the needs that surround us some may find a call. We may collectively find a call for our church. It may take time to find. It may take a lot of time. But looking for ways to serve AND acting on what we find makes this about what we can be doing, not about us. It might even make it easier to find our calling by not looking for it.
Karen
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We live in a world of “instant things”: from coffee to pop-corn, from the TV remote to the ATM bank. We expect everything to be fast, to be immediate. Let us not fall into the temptation of thinking the Callings (yes, the ones with capital C) come and are accepted in the same rush way we are use to live in. Nothing is more far from the truth.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, this Lent season, remind me more than any other time within the calendar, that big Calls, like good food, are cook with very low fire. Just after His baptism, Jesus heard the voice of His Parent doing the calling: “You are the one”. Usually, hearing the Call is the easiest part. The tough one comes after that. As in Jesus life, it might be 40 days in the middle of the wilderness looking straight to the eyes of the most evil forces who try so hard to offer some other alternatives. It took Jesus 40 days to surrender. It was probably the first draft of Gethsemane: “…nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
When I review this Jesus’ temptation passage, over and over again, I realize that we have been called to surrender our talents. Sometimes could be more difficult than others. I have felt so many times the temptation to keep my talent(s) just to myself. The truth is that every time that that happens, the temptation comes from the same source that tempted Jesus. Meanwhile, the Parent still waiting until we decide what to do with the Call he made.