Just get on with it
4th MAY 2017
Surely, we are just called to get on with our lives in obedience to God's ways, which are pretty clear. Its not about great bolts from the blue - Jesus has made it clear what it means to be a disciple. We are just to set our compass daily, as best we can, in the direction we believe Jesus leads us. Its not about calling, its about obedience.
And, indeed, the very word 'called' is a little suspect, really. Because, we are all a little suspicious of people who reckon they are 'God's gift' or have been given special direction or instructions directly from God. We worry about people who hear God 'speak'. And we also reckon that the kind of people God seeks out for particular roles, are generally people who are reluctant recruits rather than wanting to get
to the front of the queue (The first shall be last, and the last shall be first, after all is a big theme of Jesus).
I spent part of today in an engaging conversation with three wise Christian friends. In a wide-ranging conversation I asked, eventually, what they thought about the idea of 'calling'. We came to the view that this was a problematic word (for some of the reasons above). We thought about our own experiences of the process of discovering our 'vocations'. And we realised, with a great deal of relief, that it was often only as we looked back that we could see how, the Master had led us to respond to situations and circumstances in particular ways that shaped our direction. It was not, very often, that we were ever very certain about our direction of travel. It was just that one step of faith had led to another and so, we then discovered, we were now in this particular job or role or holding that responsibility. As one of us said, 'I just got on with what I was getting on with. I did not have a vision or a calling, I just found myself doing the role out of obedience. Later, I looked back, and realised it had been a vocation.'
Are we, as Christian thinkers and educators, too hung up with a particular process of prayerful discernment which takes no account of the 'bumbling' nature of human activity and life? If we are very honest, are we not really all just bumbling along trying to be godly?
I read the main blog and felt quite relieved. “Bumbling” is language I can understand and relate to, whereas “vocation” and “calling” always sound so much more grander and for the super spiritual. Bumbling, with a great deal of trial and error, is how things can often feel like for me. For instance I went into teaching, which is a vocation for some, not because of a sense of “calling” but I thought it was a job that would fit into home life, school holidays and caring for my children. It proved to be a job I could do quite well but I always knew deep down it wasn’t what I am really about or where fulfilment would be discovered. It was always going to be a a step to something else, but I was never sure what the something else was. Like many, I bumbled on, doing what I could, yet still offering my daily work to God. It was a job not a vocation.
ReplyDeleteThen, some time previous to that, there was the 5 year phase when I wondered if my desire to live for Jesus meant I was being called to ordained ministry. With help from other Christian leaders I explored this and discovered, to my relief and joy, that I am a lay person through and through, and I was saved from making a very big error. This long period of lack of clarity brought me back to where I already was, a mother and wife, just as leaving teaching did too. Maybe vocation is that simple - being who we already are, yet more so.
So I continue to live, offering each day to the Lord, and wait to see what unfolds, simply knowing he loves me and abides in me. And I am much more content with that as a calling - to live with Jesus, in Jesus, and for Jesus - as the blog says, setting my compass every day in his direction.
I, too, can feel wary of those who are very clear about God has said to them. Interestingly, someone asked me, only yesterday, “If God is the Creator and can make anything happen, why doesn’t s/he speak to us in an audible way, when we ask things, so it’s all very clear what we are to do?”
I wonder how fellow bloggers would have responded to this question.
Then today I’ve been spent the day with a good friend of many years. She described her career in social work as a definite vocation as, since being a teenager, she has been drawn to helping people, especially the elderly. She described vocation as what we are drawn to, what we are passionate about, what enlivens us, what motivates us. That, of course, may be our paid work, or unpaid interests and voluntary work.
I think Fee's friend describes vocation exceedingly well and this comment is my experience.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things the vicar at a previous church did was come out with deceptively simple little sayings that often stuck like a burr and I have thought about on and off ever since. One of his sayings was, "the greatest sin is not to enjoy your life." It wasn't what I expected.
I enjoy learning, and especially things I'm good at. Maths, Chemistry and Physics were much more enjoyable than Geography and English because I found them easier and was better at them. Success is more enjoyable than failure and this seems to be where enjoyment and calling or vocation come together. I enjoyed teaching the bottom Maths groups, especially year 7. It was enjoyable and satisfying to find things they could enjoy doing, symmetry was a particularly successful topic, but probably the most important thing was to be communicate to them that I enjoyed working with them and wanted them to achieve the best that they could.
Another area of great enjoyment came from the time I spent at one of the Selly Oak Colleges where there were students from all over the world. Meeting people from other countries and cultures was enjoyable and enriched my life greatly. It also showed me how easy it is to misunderstand someone else's way of doing things, but I chose to stay in the Midlands because I wanted to teach in schools that were as multicultural as possible. It also confirmed my desire to work for peace between different groups.
I didn't originally intend to teach, but circumstances made it a good thing to do and all the time I was teaching I felt I was in the right place and doing the right thing. That stayed with me until several things changed, my father's failing health being particularly significant, and I had the chance to go for early retirement when I no longer had that sense of being in the right place and doing the right thing
Two very important things for me are to value each person and to want the best for them and to be a person of peace and a peacemaker.
Was it the calling of Onesimus to be a slave? Might he have run away because his master was cruel?Was it part of God's will for him to be captured and enslaved? Did God use Onesimus to bring Philemon to deeper faith ? God allows things to happen and then turns them into good. King Cyrus comes to mind as I write. He captured the Jews, but allowed them to rebuild the temple. Perhaps his vocation was to allow the Jews to worship in freedom? His was a vocation he didn't realise he had. Maybe we too are the same. We do things that carry out God's will while bumbling along. Were Onesimus and Cyrus just bumbling along?
ReplyDeleteAs for why God doesn't just give us an answer, I wonder whether He just allows us to do what we want to,and then see for ourselves what happens. We do it with our own children, don't we? We give them the freedom, when appropriate(and certainly once they are adults), to make their own choices. I too have agonised over decisions and wished God would speak to me out loud.