|
|
|
|
|
some thoughts on vocation
Elise,
Now that you have decided to leave the safe sanctuary of your christian school for the deep waters of the uncertain ocean, I want to encourage you that this is a journey of faith. Remember that the writer of Hebrews tells us that the father of our faith.. Abraham.. went out on a journey to a place he had never seen.. trusting that the Lord was directing him and would keep him and bless him. We are encouraged by the writer to have the same faith.. a faith that believes in things unseen, and that walks out our trust in obedience even when we don't know what is ahead of us.
You are already discovering that many around you will not understand, and will even actively oppose you, when you move forward into the unknown. You are learning a great lesson about leadership! Leaders are often the first to understand the need to move in a new direction, but their courage in moving forward allows others to consider new possibilities. Your leaving HCS has already had this result. It's true that not all who may follow you in leaving are ready to do so, and you are right to be concerned. I see your caring heart in your concern for them and your encouragement to listen to the Lord, and also your strong spirit as you continue to obey what the Lord is telling you.
You have told us that your first motivation for leaving is missional. You have also told us that you are a bit bored in spending most of your time in safe christian circles. We've seen this evolution in you since you started working at Pizza Hut and then got to know some musicians who are outside the faith. You have discovered how the Lord can use you in your boldness, compassion and conviction as a witness to Him... and you have been getting very excited about that. I guess really you have been discovering that ships are built for the open sea. And more deeply, you are discovering something about your own calling and identity.
This morning I read the following in an old devotional writer named Oswald Chambers:
"Be determined to know more than others.
"If you yourself do not cut the lines that tie you to the dock, God will have to use a storm to sever them and to send you out to sea. Put everything in your life afloat upon God, going out to sea on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and your eyes will be opened. If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the harbor, full of joy, but always tied to the dock. You have to get out past the harbor into the great depths of God, and begin to know things for yourself -- begin to have spiritual discernment. "
It is a dangerous thing to pull back in fear from a direction the Lord has given us. It is equally dangerous to stay too long tied at the dock when you are built for the open sea. Many Christians make this mistake and lose their missional-incarnational edge. Like a ship sitting too long at the dock, their hulls become rusty and encrusted with barnacles from disuse. Their faith becomes sluggish and eventually seems incidental. What is the use in being an ocean liner if you are always tied to the dock?
One concern I want to address with you is the question some have raised about influence. They say, "Elise, you are a leader and influencer at HCS.. we need you here." It's true that your leaving is a loss. It's true that your leaving has an impact, both on the friends you leave behind and on the younger students who are always watching you.
Consider what those younger students are seeing now.. a young lady who is willing to walk in her convictions, even when opposed; a young lady whose compassion and passion push her toward risk and away from the safety of the dock; a young lady who believes that ultimately the church exists for the sake of the world, not to create comfortable christian fortresses; a young lady who is marching to the beat of her own drum, and not merely echoing a religious doctrine. By your actions you are showing to them a powerful example of the love of Jesus, and the importance of listening to the inner call.
As you have made this decision to go, you have been forced to ask questions about authority. Who can give you permission to leave? Is it your parents? Is it the principal of the school? Should some pastor be giving approval? Does God alone direct you? How do you know what is God's will for you in this?
Discerning a call, and in particular vocation, has to do with listening. You know God's will by listening to Him, by listening to those you trust, and by carefully listening to your own life and the path the Lord is growing in you. This process has little to do with position or title, little to do even with goals, and everything to do with relationship and trust.
Those who know you best, and who love you best, will best be able to help discern the Lord's direction with you. There is nothing super mystical or spiritual about this process.. or maybe rather, in the end we discover that a lot of spirituality is just love, a willingness to risk, real life dynamics and common-sense. God is intimately concerned with and involved in ordinary life. Remember that it was God who created this ordinary and amazing world, and that Jesus himself spent most of his life as a carpenter.
In the end, there are good reasons to stay... and good reasons to go. We have talked about the other issues.. a religious school culture.. lack of course options.. those are legitimate concerns also. But ultimately you need to be listening to the Lord and following Him, not following the voices of those around you, or merely doing what seems to work best. There is a life that only you can lead, quite apart from what you might like it to be, and if you listen to your life you will understand this. You can live a life that is not yours, and it will be dull and powerless. Or you can find your life, and it will become a vocation.. the Latin root of the word means "voice" .. that is uniquely yours.
One of the mistakes often made by the religious crowd is to understand vocation as a voice that comes from "out there" that calls us to be something we are not. That is a serious mistake. Your real voice comes from within, and calls you to be the person you were born to be, to fulfil the original selfhood created by God.
I will listen to what you say,
I think you will remember a question one of your friends asked you some months ago as you talked to him about the Lord. "What does the Lord want from me?" Do you remember my answer? I said to you, "I believe that what the Lord wants from us is to discover our deepest passion and dedicate that passion to Him." Or as Frederick Buechner put it, "your calling is where your deep joy and the world's deep hunger meet."
I'm very proud of you. You have grown beyond my teaching in this and are an example to me of courage and leadership and discipleship. All these things tell me that you are more than ready to follow Jesus as he leads you on the great adventure of life.
|
New Phuture / Cutting Edge / Relevant Magazine / Shoot the Messenger / Vine and Branches / Jesus People USA / Postmodern Mission / Sacred Future / Tribal Generation / Reality / Waves Church / Matthew's House / Sacramentis / Praxis / Post Boomer / FutureChurch / MethodX / TheOOZE / ginkworld / The Landing Place / ::seven:: / emergent village / Highway Video / emerging church / Sojourners / Ship of Fools / Beyond / Next-Wave / Small Fire / ThePowerSurge / dtour
|
• © 1999-2002 Len Hjalmarson.•
Last Updated on January 25, 2004
