God's Gifting and Call

"For the Kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power."

1 Corinthians 4:20

Why doesn't God allow all of us to have the same gifts and abilities?  It is not fair that some folks have such greater gifts than I do.

Even as I write these two sentences, I must confess I find them ludicrous.  Why does God gift each of us in different ways?   I have no idea.  I do know that He calls us all to be the body of Christ.  A body without different parts will not work right.  Instead, health means that all the parts of the body are present and working to help the rest of the body.

What does this mean for the ministry?

Having walked with believers and ministry workers for many years, I believe that most of us secretly wish we had different gifts.  We wish we could be like someone we look up to in ministry.  We are painfully aware of our shortcomings.

Deep within we believe that life and ministry would be different if we were just different.

In answer to this natural, fallen human tendency, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12 that we should not wish we had other gifts than the ones we do (gift envy), and he instructs us not to look down on those with different gifts (gift projection).

As I grow older, I am more and more convinced that there is a place for every type of person in the Kingdom of God.

In fact, I believe there is a place and ministry for every type of person.  

The key to success is matching our gifts, calling, experience, and talents with the ministry to which we are called.  To put this positively, when God gives the call to a specific ministry, He also gifts us for the task.

What does this mean for us?

When we are looking at a ministry opportunity, we must know who we are in Christ, and we need to understand what the ministry needs to succeed.  This requires wisdom and a bit of knowledge.  Today I want to offer some of Paul's wisdom regarding how God gives to His church spiritually gifted people just like you.

How do we know which God-given ministry we are called to?  

I sure wish the process was easy and quick.  Instead, I find that answering this question requires wisdom and grace.  It helps to have some guides along the way so we don't get discouraged.  Let me share a brief story to illustrate.  

I had a good friend in seminary who came to school from North Carolina with his wife who was studying to be a psychologist.  He had loved his pastor in college and he wanted to be like him.  He wanted so much to be a pastor who could impact people's lives like he had witnessed.

He began in the M.Div. program, which is a degree to train for ordained ministry.  After a year, he was miserable.  His grades were very good, because he was bright.  Yet, he had no peace and joy in the work.  Before coming to seminary, he was an accountant.  After months of forcing himself to study theology, Greek, and such, he found himself nightly in the library studying tax law.  He found it fascinating (I cannot even imagine).  Finally, he called his old firm and asked if they had a position in Boston.  He shared that he needed to get back to work in something he loved.  That was a Thursday afternoon.  On Friday he had an interview.  On Monday, he began to work at the Boston office of his accounting firm for $80,000 a year (remember this was the mid 1990s).

What can we learn from this?  

First, it pays to be an accountant.  Second, he was trying to force his way into a life and ministry to which he was not called and gifted.  The result was misery and a lack of success.  When he finally came to his senses, the Lord opened other doors and blessed his work.  In fact, he later applied for law school, did extremely well, passed the bar, and became a tax lawyer.  Last I heard, he was also working toward a political career.

If you are not good at understanding yourself (and most of us aren't good at such self-knowledge), I encourage you to find a trusted friend, pastor, or counselor to help you gain some self-understanding.  I also recommend that you take some personality tests and that you take some tests to help you discover your spiritual gifts.  While these tools are not fool-proof, they can be helpful tools in the hands of a wise counselor to help us gain self-knowledge.

Most importantly, get out in a variety of ministries and environments to see what brings you life, joy, and success.  Try everything.  If you fail at something, do not get down, but learn from it.  Ask some questions and ask a friend or counselor to help you answer these questions.

Why did you fail?  What happened?  If you find that you are good at something, but still not empowered and full of joy while doing it, ask why?  Perhaps the gifting is present, but the direction of this ministry was not quite correct.

Most importantly, try a variety of ministries and areas of labor.

At all times remember that God is one who has given you a desire to serve Him.  He will never forsake you and He loves you dearly.  If you are in a tough spot now, this does not change God's love for you.  If you have failed miserably in a certain ministry, this does not change God's love for you.  He even uses our failure.  In fact, He seems particularly good at using our failures to give us wisdom and direction if we have the heart and faith to ask for wisdom with what happened.

Rest in the reality that God is the one who prepares us for life and ministry.  His Spirit leads us to fruitful fields of labor.  We should strive to discover where and how God is leading us while at the same time be encouraging and acknowledging that others are called to different tasks.  

May the Lord lead us and guide us to use our gifts and personality to pursue His calling for us.

Work as Worship

The works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks, but that all works are measured before God by faith alone. ... Indeed, the menial housework of a manservant or maidservant is often more acceptable to God than all the fasting and other works of a monk or priest, because the monk or priest lacks faith.

Martin Luther, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, 1520.

Luther's critique of Medieval monastic life was radical and transforming.  He wrote as an Augustinian monk himself.  In other words, he was an insider, offering an insider's critique of a movement that began as a renewal movement, but that had slowly transformed into a movement that promoted false spirituality throughout the culture.

What was so revolutionary about Luther's critique?

He reintroduced the idea that all of our life must be lived before the face of a Living God.  

How often we forget this truth.  We often believe our job is what we do to make money, while church and other spiritual activities are when we seek God.  Luther calls such a dualism false, treacherous, and dangerous for true spirituality.  I believe such dualism is also why Christians make so little impact on our culture.

As Os Guinness writes,

If all that a believer does grows out of faith and is done for the glory of God, then all dualistic distinctions are demolished.  There is no higher/lower, sacred/secular, perfect/permitted, contemplative/active, or first class/second class.  Calling is the premise of Christian existence itself.  Calling means that everyone, everywhere, and in everything fulfills his or her (secondary) callings in response to God's (primary) calling.  For Luther, the peasant and the merchant- for us, the business person, the teacher, the factory worker, and the television anchor- can do God's work (or fail to do it) just as much as the minister and the missionary.

The Call, 34.

I do wish I could convince so many business people, teachers, factory workers, television anchors, ministers and missionaries that this is true.

How you do your work determines the ultimate value of the work.  

Any occupation that does not directly contradict the revealed will of God 

as demonstrated in the Word of God is a holy occupation.  

What does this mean?  

First, there should not be two sets of rules for how you live your life at work and at "holy activities."  The same integrity and changed heart that illustrates living in light of God's presence should adorn all of life.

As a student, we should not cheat so we pass and then we can do "God's work."  As a business person, we do not cheat others through misleading statements and half truths before we go to our prayer meeting.  As a teacher, we do not teach our subjects like God does not exist and then head off to Bible study.  As a pastor, we do not run a business that peddles religious truth on the weekends, but treats our employees and our parishioners badly.

Second, we should not neglect nor diminish whatever work we find ourselves doing.  If you are a janitor, clean to the best of your ability for Jesus is right beside you.  If you are a teacher, do not look forward to retirement when you can really do something worthwhile, but teach each day before the presence of God. If you are a homemaker, rejoice that God has allowed you to clean clothes, wipe bottoms, as well as cook and clean.  What you are doing is God's work- at least when you do it in faith!

No job is beneath us and every job/occupation has honor.  

What can you do to bring the presence of God more into your labor?  Perhaps your workplace does not allow "outward expressions of faith."  So what?  How can you do your job to illustrate the grace, mercy, and presence of God?  How does your heart have to change to make this happen?

The Process of Transformation

I have to confess that I really wish true and lasting change happened instantaneously.  I wish all I had to do was some sort of formulaic chant and God would change me, however I asked to be changed, in an instant.

I think marketers have figured out that I am not alone with these desires.  I think there is something deep within each of us that wishes for paradise where we would not have to struggle so much for everything.  Yet instead, we toil away at changing or we ignore our need to change.

What prompts these thoughts?

I am back on a diet and exercise program!  I so wish I could just wake up tomorrow and my spare tire would be flat.  Every day I have times where I am hungry and after working out the past three weeks for six days a week, my muscles are still a bit sore.  I truly would like to not have these symptoms.

But, to lose weight in a healthy manner, I must go through a process.  I can't just lose my last ten pounds instantly, but I have to slowly take off a pound or two a week.  More than that and it would not be healthy.  I keep telling myself that, but I don't care.  I want to be changed right now!

Maybe I could make it easier.  

Maybe I could buy an ab machine that will flatten my abs in minutes while watching TV.  Maybe I could go on a crash diet of cabbage, seaweed, and Alpo for ten days and it would all be better.  Maybe I could just ask God to zap me and then I will wake up tomorrow at my goal.

Yet, experience tells me that none of these "maybes" will work.  Only daily faithfulness to a routine and following of my plan, which is by definition a blue-print of the process I laid out, will increase my muscle tone and shrink my fat.  Today I am between where I was and where I hope to be.  Yet, I take comfort and ask for God's grace to stick to the plan because I know the goal will be good!

How much of our inner transformation is like going on a diet and exercise plan?

We wait for something to change, for God to zap us, for a miracle "spirituality" machine.  But God has made us a people of process and often not a people of immediate transformation.

What type of plan can you lay out for the next six weeks to help you grow?  

Some of the more important and obvious means of growth are prayer, application of the gospel, reading and applying God's Word, and immersion in community.  What can you do with these areas?  What habits of transformation would you like to form over the next six weeks?

Coming Revival or Coming Anarchy?

Where are we headed as a people?  Apart from God's reviving spirit, the world system sits at the edge of a great cliff.  Why?  Because the next generation, here and abroad, have been so negatively effected by our worldwide economic policy.  

One generation of hopelessness either leads to revival or it leads to anarchy, revolution, and revolt.  Which option will happen?  God only knows!  

The following is an article I ran across on Zero Hedge today.  Some good stats to ponder.  What do you think?

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,

Why are young people in America so frustrated these days?  You are about to find out.  Most young adults started out having faith in the system.  They worked hard, they got good grades, they stayed out of trouble and many of them went on to college.  But when their educations where over, they discovered that the good jobs that they had been promised were not waiting for them at the end of the rainbow.  Even in the midst of this so-called "economic recovery", the full-time employment rate for Americans under the age of 30 continues to fall.  And incomes for that age group continue to fall as well.  At the same time, young adults are dealing with record levels of student loan debt.  As a result, more young Americans than ever are putting off getting married and having families, and more of them than ever are moving back in with their parents.

It can be absolutely soul crushing when you discover that the "bright future" that the system had been promising you for so many years turns out to be a lie.  A lot of young people ultimately give up on the system and many of them end up just kind of drifting aimlessly through life.  The following is an example from a recent Wall Street Journal article...

James Roy, 26, has spent the past six years paying off $14,000 in student loans for two years of college by skating from job to job. Now working as a supervisor for a coffee shop in the Chicago suburb of St. Charles, Ill., Mr. Roy describes his outlook as "kind of grim."

"It seems to me that if you went to college and took on student debt, there used to be greater assurance that you could pay it off with a good job," said the Colorado native, who majored in English before dropping out. "But now, for people living in this economy and in our age group, it's a rough deal."

Young adults as a group have been experiencing a tremendous amount of economic pain in recent years.  The following are 30 statistics about Americans under the age of 30 that will blow your mind...

#1 The labor force participation rate for men in the 18 to 24 year old age bracket is at an all-time low.

#2 The ratio of what men in the 18 to 29 year old age bracket are earning compared to the general population is at an all-time low.

#3 Only about a third of all adults in their early 20s are working a full-time job.

#4 For the entire 18 to 29 year old age bracket, the full-time employment rate continues to fall.  In June 2012, 47 percent of that entire age group had a full-time job.  One year later, in June 2013, only 43.6 percent of that entire age group had a full-time job.

#5 Back in the year 2000, 80 percent of men in their late 20s had a full-time job.  Today, only 65 percent do.

#6 In 2007, the unemployment rate for the 20 to 29 year old age bracket was about 6.5 percent.  Today, the unemployment rate for that same age group is about 13 percent.

#7 American families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.

#8 During 2012, young adults under the age of 30 accounted for 23 percent of the workforce, but they accounted for a whopping 36 percent of the unemployed.

#9 During 2011, 53 percent of all Americans with a bachelor’s degree under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed.

#10 At this point about half of all recent college graduates are working jobs that do not even require a college degree.

#11 The number of Americans in the 16 to 29 year old age bracket with a job declined by 18 percent between 2000 and 2010.

#12 According to one survey, 82 percent of all Americans believe that it is harder for young adults to find jobs today than it was for their parents to find jobs.

#13 Incomes for U.S. households led by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 have fallen by about 12 percent after you adjust for inflation since the year 2000.

#14 In 1984, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older was 10 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger.  Today, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older is 47 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger.

#15 In 2011, SAT scores for young men were the worst that they had been in 40 years.

#16 Incredibly, approximately two-thirds of all college students graduate with student loans.

#17 According to the Federal Reserve, the total amount of student loan debt has risen by 275 percent since 2003.

#18 In America today, 40 percent of all households that are led by someone under the age of 35 are paying off student loan debt.  Back in 1989, that figure was below 20 percent.

#19 The total amount of student loan debt in the United States now exceeds the total amount of credit card debt in the United States.

#20 According to the U.S. Department of Education, 11 percent of all student loans are at least 90 days delinquent.

#21 The student loan default rate in the United States has nearly doubled since 2005.

#22 One survey found that 70% of all college graduates wish that they had spent more time preparing for the "real world" while they were still in college.

#23 In the United States today, there are more than 100,000 janitors that have college degrees.

#24 In the United States today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees.

#25 Today, an all-time low 44.2 percent of all Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 are married.

#26 According to the Pew Research Center, 57 percent of all Americans in the 18 to 24 year old age bracket lived with their parents during 2012.

#27 One poll discovered that 29 percent of all Americans in the 25 to 34 year old age bracket are still living with their parents.

#28 Young men are nearly twice as likely to live with their parents as young women the same age are.

#29 Overall, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents according to Time Magazine.

#30 Young Americans are becoming increasingly frustrated that previous generations have saddled them with a nearly 17 trillion dollar national debt that they are expected to make payments on for the rest of their lives.

And this trend is not just limited to the United States.  As I have written about frequently, unemployment rates for young adults throughout Europe have been soaring to unprecedented heights.  For example, the unemployment rate for those under the age of 25 in Italy has now reached 40.1 percent.

Simon Black of the Sovereign Man blog discussed this global trend in a recent article on his website...

Youth unemployment rates in these countries are upwards of 40% to nearly 70%. The most recent figures published by the Italian government show yet another record high in youth unemployment.

An entire generation is now coming of age without being able to leave the nest or have any prospect of earning a decent wage in their home country.

This underscores an important point that I’ve been writing about for a long time: young people in particular get the sharp end of the stick.

They’re the last to be hired, the first to be fired, the first to be sent off to fight and die in foreign lands, and the first to have their benefits cut.

And if they’re ever lucky enough to find meaningful employment, they can count on working their entire lives to pay down the debts of previous generations through higher and higher taxes.

But when it comes time to collect… finally… those benefits won’t be there for them.

Meanwhile, the overall economy continues to get even weaker.

In the United States, Gallup's daily economic confidence index is now the lowest that it has been in more than a year.

For young people that are in high school or college right now, the future does not look bright.  In fact, this is probably as good as the U.S. economy is going to get.  It is probably only going to be downhill from here.

The system is failing, and young people are going to become even angrier and even more frustrated.

So what will that mean for our future?

Faithful Living

The works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks, but that all works are measured before God by faith alone. ... Indeed, the menial housework of a manservant or maidservant is often more acceptable to God than all the fasting and other works of a monk or priest, because the monk or priest lacks faith.

Martin Luther, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, 1520.

Luther's critique of Medieval monastic life was radical and transforming.  He wrote as an Augustinian monk himself.  In other words, he was an insider, offering an insider's critique of a movement that began as a renewal movement, but that had slowly transformed into a movement that promoted false spirituality throughout the culture.

What was so revolutionary about Luther's critique?  He reintroduced the idea that all of our life must be lived before the face of a Living God.  How often we forget!  We often believe our job is what we do to make money, while church and other spiritual activities are when we seek God.  Luther calls such a dualism false, treacherous, and dangerous for true spirituality.  I believe such dualism is also why Christians make so little impact on our culture.

As Os Guinness writes,

If all that a believer does grows out of faith and is done for the glory of God, then all dualistic distinctions are demolished.  There is no higher/lower, sacred/secular, perfect/permitted, contemplative/active, or first class/second class.  Calling is the premise of Christian existence itself.  Calling means that everyone, everywhere, and in everything fulfills his or her (secondary) callings in response to God's (primary) calling.  For Luther, the peasant and the merchant- for us, the business person, the teacher, the factory worker, and the television anchor- can do God's work (or fail to do it) just as much as the minister and the missionary.

The Call, 34.

I do wish I could convince so many business people, teachers, factory workers, television anchors, ministers and missionaries that this is true.

How you do your work determines the ultimate value of the work.  Any occupation that does not directly contradict the revealed will of God as demonstrated in the Word of God is a holy occupation.  

What does this mean?  

First, there should not be two sets of rules for how you live your life at work and at "holy activities."  The same integrity and changed heart that illustrates living in light of God's presence should adorn all of life.

As a student, we should not cheat so we pass and then we can do "God's work."  As a business person, we do not cheat others through misleading statements and half truths before we go to our prayer meeting.  As a teacher, we do not teach our subjects like God does not exist and then head off to Bible study.  As a pastor, we do not run a business that peddles religious truth on the weekends, but treats our employees and our parishioners badly.

Second, we should not neglect nor diminish whatever work we find ourselves doing.  If you are a janitor, clean to the best of your ability for Jesus is right beside you.  If you are a teacher, do not look forward to retirement when you can really do something worthwhile, but teach each day before the presence of God. If you are a homemaker, rejoice that God has allowed you to clean clothes, wipe bottoms, as well as cook and clean.  What you are doing is God's work- at least when you do it in faith!

No job is beneath us and every job/occupation has honor.  

What can you do to bring the presence of God more into your labor?  Perhaps your workplace does not allow "outward expressions of faith."  So what?  How can you do your job to illustrate the grace, mercy, and presence of God?  How does your heart have to change to make this happen?  

Actively Passive in the Presence of God

I wish I could say that I have been too busy to write more.  It would not be true.  We always have time to do what we really want to do.  I have not been too busy, but to preoccupied.  I have had plenty of time to think, pray, and be silent.

What have I learned?

I still do not know!  I am working on a variety of thoughts and projects.  I feel like I am preparing the ground.  For what?  Here is the question!  This has been a time of active passivity.  I do not yet know the fruit of the time.

What has been my life and time recently.  The following is a thoughtful quote from Francis Schaeffer. 

"Thus I am to live now by faith, rooted in the things which have been, such as Christ's death and resurrection; what is, such as the second stream of reality in the unseen now; and what will be such as my coming bodily resurrection and return with Christ.  And this is not sheer passivity, as we have seen. God will deal with me in the circle in which he made me; that is, in his image- as a man, not as a stick or stone.  There are unbiblical forms of "spirituality" which put their emphasis almost entirely upon some sort of "resignation."  The Bible rejects this.  You are not just a beast in the field.  It is not just a case of accepting, there is to be an activeness in our passivity.  We have to be creatures because that is what we are- creatures.  But in Christ we are presented with an opportunity, a calling, to be a creature by choice, to be creatures glorified.  Through an active passivity, we are creatures, not of necessity but by choice, here in this present space-time, historic world.  When I come to this point, no matter how many times I preach or write it, it still takes my breath away."

Francis Schaeffer,  True Spirituality, 82.

What is he saying?  First, all of us are living in two-world existence.  We are living in the here and now temporal framework of this universe, and we also are living in a very real spiritual realm that is marked by eternity.  What we do here touches on the eternal realm.  What Christ did in the eternal realm can and should impact our everyday experience in the here and now.  Schaeffer argues that living by faith means acknowledging and living as a citizen of both realms.

How does this look in real life?

Schaeffer argues that we must actively, by choice, live as creatures now glorified.  Honestly, I do not know exactly what he means here.  Let me follow up with another quote from later in the book that might clarify what he said.

"So we must believe God's promises at this one moment in which we are.  Consequently, in believing God's promises, we apply them- the present meaning of the work of Christ for the Christian- for and in this one moment.  If you only can see that, everything changes.  As we believe God for this moment, the Holy Spirit is not quenched.  And through his agency, the risen and glorified Christ, as the bridegroom of the bride, the vine, brings forth his fruit through us, at this moment.  This is the practice of active passivity.  And it is the only way anybody can live; there is no other way to live but moment by moment."

Francis Schaeffer,  True Spirituality, 86.

My life of late has felt like freeing labor.  It is hard ease.  It has been thoughtful letting go.  It has felt like active passivity.

In other words, I have felt and lived the tension of living out the gospel by faith.  I have been reflecting upon and believing the promises in my life.  I have been training/preparing/opening my ears so that I can hear what God is saying about my living in His presence now.

It has been rewarding and humbling.  It has been easy but hard.  It has also meant talking less so I can hear more.  In the case of this blog, this means writing less also!

May this week be marked by faith.  May we walk in light of Christ's finished work that makes all the difference in eternity and in every day, moment by moment, life.  

Sluggard Tendencies within Each of Us

"I passed by the field of the sluggard, and by the vineyard of the man lacking sense;

and behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles,

its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.

When I saw, I reflected upon it; I looked and received instruction.

'A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.'

Then your poverty will come as a robber, and your want like an armed man." 

Pro. 24: 30-34

As I have shared before, each day I read a chapter of Proverbs.  This book has been my constant friend, companion, and instructor for over 20 years!  Proverbs is a book in the OT located just after the Psalms.  It is a very practical book that gives pithy statements of general truth.  In the ancient near eastern cultures, such statements amounted to important cultural intelligence.  To know these proverbs well and to apply them in life illustrated good education.  Solomon was the wisest man in the world because he knew, composed, and passed on these proverbs.

As I was heading to the Proverbs for today (chapter 12), my eyes caught this passage.  I have met this sluggard.  I have known him in every church I ever served.  This sluggard, whether a man or a woman, often wants much in life, but they just lack the energy to do anything about it.  It is not like their intentions are wrong or bad.  They merely lack the ability to put any plan into action that will help them achieve their desires.

I have seen the sluggard lose everything.  I have seen people who literally live in homes that are falling apart on a piece of property that is falling apart.  I have also seen folks who desire a better relationship with their spouse or children, yet they spend all their spare time doing nothing but watching sports on TV.  I have witnessed people who eat themselves to poor health and even death because they lack the will-power or desire to begin to exercise and change their eating habits.

I have also closely observed folks who do none of the above, yet have definite sluggard tendencies.  I know first-hand that one can be a sluggard by not following the leading of the Holy Spirit.  I am afraid that all too often, I am that type of sluggard!  How so?  

I have a horrible tendency to put off to tomorrow what I could do today.  Each of us are given 24 hours to live each day.  No one has more time than others.  So why do some of us get more done than others?  They use their time wisely!  As I look back on the first half of my life, I sure have wasted a ton of my God-given time!  I have spend it on amusements, laziness, and non-Kingdom based activities.  I have folded my hands in rest and said to myself, "Tomorrow I will start."  The problem is that tomorrow never comes!

When I was a kid, we had an old bar called the Trading Post where we loved to eat dinner.  It had great food and homemade pies!  It also had a sign outside that said, "Free Beer Tomorrow."  If asked about it, the owner would say, with a sly smile on his face, "Come back tomorrow and all the beer is free."

Tomorrow never comes.  Take the five minutes to start that new project today!  Be in motion for the Kingdom.  Call that friend the Lord lays upon your heart.  Do not put it off!  As you follow the Lord's leading He will give you more strength to face the day.

Our characters are formed by repeated choices.  We can be transformed by God's grace and by asking the Spirit to apply what we hear from the living God.  Ask Him to use you!  You will be amazed what He can do!

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think, 

according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory..." 

Ephesians 3: 20-21

Gifting, Calling, and the Open Door

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; 

but often we look so long at the closed door 

that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."

Helen Keller

Today is another day of vacation.  By mind is slowly becoming less cluttered as I spend time with my family, in sleep, and in fun outdoor activities.  I am thankful for the time off!  

Today I wish to share two related quotes.  The first is at the top and it is by Helen Keller.  I want to focus this quote toward the topic of vocation, calling, determining God's will, and joyful living.  I completely agree with Keller that so often I stare at closed doors instead of having the faith to look for what God is opening.  How about you?

The second selection is from Dan Miller's website, www.48days.com from the February 22 post.  This selection is a storyline I have heard often.  I will let it speak for itself.  I will say that I believe it overlaps perfectly with the Keller quotation because so often as the door is shutting, we keep banging our heads against it demand that it open as we wish.  Where does God fit into such actions?

Here is Miller's post.

Last Sunday night, after speaking at a church, a lady approached me with her question. She was obviously very discouraged with low self-esteem, poor eye contact and overall weak personal presentation.  But her question was – “Why should I keep trying when God keeps closing the door on my calling?”  Wow – now there’s a question designed to stump even a theologian – which I am not.  If God “calls” us to something, wouldn’t He open the doors to make that happen?  Is this like asking if God can make a rock so big He can’t move it?

Frankly, I don’t think her question is that complicated.  I think she needs to take a fresh look at her 

“calling.”  She said she’s always wanted to be a counselor.  She got a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and then was rejected from entering graduate school in counseling.  So she spent three years and went deeply in debt to get her Masters of Divinity (MDiv) degree, thinking that would open the door.  She then applied for the graduate counseling program again but was rejected once more.  She took an entry level job with a community counseling agency but was let go after a couple of months.  She told me she has never married, lives alone and has few friends.  I asked her if people were coming to her for her advice and opinion now.  To which she replied – No – that’s why she needed the degrees in counseling.

I think this is a mis-interpretation of “calling.”  If God’s calls us to something there will be affirmation of that in many ways.  If God is calling you to be a musician you will likely already have shown talent in that area and have lots of people telling you to move in that direction.  If God is calling you to counsel or coach, I’m confident people are already telling you their problems and you are surprised by the wisdom you are frequently able to offer.

Yes I do think it requires work and struggle to be effective even in our “calling.”  But I don’t think God “calls” us to something that does not line up with our passions, talents, personality traits and dreams.

– Thomas Merton said:

 “A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him….  The more a tree is like itself, the more it is like Him….” 

Don’t try to be a rose bush (as good as that may be) if you’re a tree.  Be a great tree.

What areas do you have strong natural talents?  How has God put you together as a person?  What experiences have you enjoyed or merely endured that have shaped you in a certain direction?

God uses it all.  He also will use you, as you are shaped and formed, to achieve His glory.  What doors has God opened to you?  Why are you afraid to walk through them?

Peace in a world of Overload

Richard Swenson has made a living preaching the values of Margin a person's life.  I believe he has written four books on the subject!  Margin is the space on the outside of the pages.  It is the area not written upon.  Swenson, who is a medical doctor, argues that giving 100% of our energy and resources is pure foolishness.  It is like writing on every square inch of a page!  Unfortunately, life without margin is the new normal.  As Swenson states,

As a result, like in modern-day America is essentially devoid of time and space.  Not the Star Trek kind- the sanity kind.  Overload is the new normal.  We have too many choices and decisions, too many activities and commitments, too much change creating too much stress.  We have too much speed and hurry.  We have too much technology, complexity, traffic, information, possessions, debt, expectations, advertisements, and media.  And we have too little margin.

But if overload is the disease, then margin is the antidote.  To balance today's lifestyles, restoring our margin is a needed first step.  The vast majority of us are healthier if we draw a line somewhere short of overload, i.e., if we preserve some margin.

In Search of Balance, 90-91.

So how do we know if we struggle with not keeping margin in our life?  I find it is always easier to see how others struggle with this concept than it is to see it in ourselves!  Swenson gives us a great test to help us gain an accurate diagnosis.

When our margin is depleted and our reserves are gone, we shift emphasis.  Instead of being compassionate and caring in our attitude, we become apathetic or rude.  Instead of being outwardly focused in our service, we become self-protective.  Instead of pursuing innovation and productivity in our job, we become irritable and fatigued. (91)

I know at times in my life, I have really struggled maintaining proper margin.  In my life, one of the big causes of my lack of margin was my health.  For years, I struggled with a gluten allergy that I just did not know about.  In the past five years, it got so much worse!  The result was that my physical strength was limited because I was poisoning my body with the food I ate.  I tried to eat well, but what is good for others (whole wheat grains!) was death to me.

I share this because many people confuse how their spirituality works.  As humans in a fallen world, we are so interconnected between our physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional dimensions.  I meet so many who struggle with their faith, but I think the reason for this struggle is a physical, mental, or emotional problem.  In my case, the physical issue robbed me of margin and left me without the energy to engage as I would wish.  No amount of spiritual, mental or emotional fixing was going to change my physical problem!

So, as we pursue margin in our lives and as we seek a deeper walk with God, check your physical, mental and emotional resources!  If you struggle with depression for chemical reasons, seek to fix the physical problem.  If you have emotional scars from past abuse, find a pastor or counselor to help you work through these emotional and mental bottlenecks!  Having issues in any area of life is not a sign of inability or laziness or lack of spiritual depth.  It is a mark of living in a fallen world.

I will conclude with Swenson's word about regaining margin.

Margin, rightly conceived, is not about laziness, mediocrity, and noninvolvement.  It is about focus, discipline, and self-control.  But mostly is it a prioritizing space where we concentrate on the things that matter most (balance!).

Restoring margin to overloaded lives is possible if we are willing to think creatively, live differently, act intentionally, and stop following the crowds to the malls.  Hundreds of practical margin suggestions have been written elsewhere to assist in such a lifestyle direction.  But the first step, as always, resides within each human heart. (93-94)

Pray for the grace to see if you need to regain margin.  Pray for the grace to see what is robbing you of your margin.  May the Lord bless you as you regain capacity to love others well!