Calling

[mferrini]

Sometimes the simplest question has the most complex answer. As I navigate this season of my vocational life, I am repeatedly asked some form of the same question: what are you looking for? It is a simple question, which could be answered superficially – “well, I am hoping to find a pastoral position.” While that answer is technically true, it is not the whole truth. The truth is much more complex.
In the spring of 1991, my wife of 18 months and I were maturing in our new-found faith and volunteering with the youth group at our local church. As I interacted with the teens, many of whom were dealing with brokenness at home, I was consumed with the desire to share with them what I wished, in my brokenness as a kid, someone would have shared with me: God loves you so greatly that He sent us His Son to save you from death and sin. I sensed that I could shepherd these lost sheep, tending to their wounds with the balm of the Holy Spirit, feeding them through the Word of God, and guiding them by following the Lord. This calling led me to finish my education at a local college, matriculate through a local seminary, and serve in a local church for more than 25 years, all the while remaining faithful to the leading of God to shepherd His flock.
14 months ago, the sheep I was called by God to tend were called by God to scatter, and as our local church closed each lamb joined a new flock with a faithful shepherd who would tend, feed, and guide them. I, along with my wife and family, became a shepherd in search of a flock. I have sat prayerfully under the council of other shepherds as a visiting ‘sheep’, feeling the tug on most Sundays to address a wound or offer a pleasing patch pastureland; I know that is not my role in those places at this time.
Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! Psalm 27:14 (ESV)
Those times of watching and waiting for the Lord’s plans to unfold have served as confirmation in my soul that I have been formed and fashioned for the pastoral life. God has wired me to be a shepherd of His flock. I see the hurts and pains, and when the circumstances are dire, I will lend my aid to the wayward and wondering sheep of another shepherd. But what am I looking for? I am asking God for a bit of meadow on a dewy hillside where a flock of God’s sheep can be tended, fed, and guided.
Every person reading these words, whether you know it or not, whether you know Him or not, has a calling, a purpose for your life. Every hurt and hunger, every blessing and blunder, every lesson and longing, can and should be explored to lead you to what God has made possible for your life. So, what are you looking for?