The Questions Our Calling Answers

We don’t find our calling; if finds us.  We may catch our calling as it hurtles toward us, but mostly we are caught in its web long before we recognize its existence.  We are actor-writers of our character, but most of  us sense we are discovering something that has been given to us far more than it is something we are creating.  It is both/and, of course.  We both discover and create.  It is this dual perspective that allows us to ask:  “What moves me?  To what and to whom am I to say yes?  How will I follow the unfathomable desires of my heart?”

God gives us desire and meaning.  They are inside us alongside our calling, without any effort on our part to create them.  When it comes to being caught by my calling, my options are simple:

Whom will I serve (the population)?

In what locale will I serve that community (the place)?

In that community and in that place, what portion of the Fall will I face (the problems)?

And what means will I use to address those problems (the process)?

Our calling in life is always tied to population, place, problems, and process…

You are gifted.  You are called.  You are telling a story.  The clearer you can be about yourself, the further you will be on the journey of catching and being caught by your calling.  And the moment you say yes to a population, a place, a problem, and a process–you have been seized by your calling.

~ Dan Allender in To Be Told: Know Your Story, Shape Your Future, page 103-105.

Calling Is Not A Job Offer

Most people understand understand calling as God’s calling us to a specific job.  Indeed, God called adolescent Jeremiah to preach of his coming judgment.  And God called Paul (then named Saul) to serve the very people that he, blinded by zeal, had been trying to destroy.  God calls us to certain tasks and jobs, but he doesn’t do so because we are uniquely suited to do them.  He calls us to the task of job because we are weak, broken, and ill-equipped for the task.

I don’t believe anyone is called to a job or a profession.  My calling in life is not to be a writer, therapist, speaker, teacher, trainer, or administrator.  My calling is to walk through any door God gives me in order to reveal his glory. If I am a graduate-school president, it’s for a season, but my life lasts for eternity.  If I am a physician or an auto mechanic, it is no different: I am called by God not for a mere season or reason but for an eternity to reveal his glory.  What is my calling?  It is to make known something about God that is bound to my unique face, name, and story.  It is to reveal God through my character.

~ Dan Allender in To Be Told: Know Your Story, Shape Your Future, page 102.

My Twins Are Ten

Former Womb-mates!

Ten years ago today we welcomed our twins into the world in Pensacola, Florida.

Happy Birthday Micah and Abi!!

Daddy loves you like crazy!

Blogging About “Total Church”

Steve Timmis and Tim Chester are blogging about their book Total Church over at the Resurgence Blog.  This book is a great contribution to the church, and I highly recommend it.  Here’s a piece of Tim’s first post:

In our book, Total Church, Steve Timmis and I argue for two core principles that should shape the life and mission of the local church: gospel and community. The content of our ministry is the gospel. It’s a word: gospel means good news. So being gospel-centered means being word-centered. And it’s a word to be proclaimed: gospel means good news. So being gospel-centered means being mission-centered. That’s the content of ministry. The context is always the Christian community. Ministry is not an event, still less a performance. It takes place in and through the shared life of the Christian community. So whether it’s evangelism or social involvement or children’s work or apologetics or pastoral care or training, these two principles shape what we do: gospel-centered and community-centered.

Read the rest here.

What I Need While I Wait

I can relate to Tullian’s experience as he waits for God to lead him through exciting but excruciating days.  I’m sure you’ve been there, too, so let his thoughts encourage you:

Following God’s lead is always good but never safe. When you commit yourself to do whatever God tells you to do and to go wherever God tells you to go, you inevitably experience up’s and down’s; high’s and low’s. For me, this week has been crazy! It’s been filled with excitement and fear; misunderstanding and frustration; laughter and tears. I’ve experienced moments of great desperation and great deliverance; grief and glory. God’s Spirit and God’s truth have afflicted me in my comfort and comforted me in my affliction. He’s never been more relevant to me. I’ve never felt so dependant on him. If God does not lead me, I’m done. It’s that simple.

As has often been the case in my Christian life, God has used the preaching of the late Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones to bring great persepective and reorientation to my troubled soul. His sermons on Revival preached in 1959 (I have them on audio cassette) are, by far, the best series of sermons I have ever heard. And last night I went back to one of them desperately needing God to remind me of my smallness and his bigness. And with a thundering voice, Lloyd-Jones reminded me of my supreme need:

“Our supreme need, and our only need, is to know God, the living God, and the power of his might. We need nothing else. It is just that, the power of the living God, to know that the living God is among us and that nothing else matters. So we wait upon him. We look to him. We cry out to him, as Moses did when he was standing before the Red Sea, not knowing what to do, and while the people were grumbling and complaining, and afraid. God answered Moses and said, “Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they may go forward” (Exodus 14:15). And on they went.

I say, forget everything else. Forget everything else. We need to realize the presence of the living God amongst us. Let everything else be silent. This is no time for minor differences. We all need to know the touch of the power of the living God.”