The Default Choice in Calling
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:38 am
I’m a plodder, a finish-what-you-started kind of person who doesn’t easily get discouraged or derailed. I sometimes wonder where that comes from. I’m sure some of it is genetic or environmental in ways I don’t fully understand. But some of it clearly is calling. I gave my life to the Lord’s direction many years ago, and decided that he had the right to direct me. Wherever he put me, that would be my calling from him. On a practical level, that means that I don’t look for “what’s next� – the default choice in calling, I am convinced, is to stay in my current situation (1 Cor. 7:17-24).
Thirty years ago, through a set of circumstances only he could engineer, the Lord led my wife and me to the United Church of Christ, hardly an easy place for evangelicals. Fifteen years ago, he led us to our current church. The local church ministry has more often than not been rewarding, with tangible results and positive feedback. The UCC has more often than not been an uphill battle, with little affirmation from anyone but the Lord. In fact, 52% of my congregation voted last year to leave the UCC, even with my open advocacy for staying. (2/3 was required to leave, so we’re still in.)
So whether it’s rewarding or not, the choice is not mine. In a culture highly attuned to self-fulfillment as a (if not the) value and standard, we who are shepherds need to live and teach that it’s ultimately about his calling, not our sense of personal satisfaction.
Thirty years ago, through a set of circumstances only he could engineer, the Lord led my wife and me to the United Church of Christ, hardly an easy place for evangelicals. Fifteen years ago, he led us to our current church. The local church ministry has more often than not been rewarding, with tangible results and positive feedback. The UCC has more often than not been an uphill battle, with little affirmation from anyone but the Lord. In fact, 52% of my congregation voted last year to leave the UCC, even with my open advocacy for staying. (2/3 was required to leave, so we’re still in.)
So whether it’s rewarding or not, the choice is not mine. In a culture highly attuned to self-fulfillment as a (if not the) value and standard, we who are shepherds need to live and teach that it’s ultimately about his calling, not our sense of personal satisfaction.