More on Calling...

So obviously I am plugging away at school - seeing as this will be the third homework assignment I have posted in the last while...
But at least that means I'm proud of the work I'm doing, right!?

The last post I made was an essay I had written about the two books on purpose/vocation/calling (Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer and The Call by Os Guinness). After all the (seven) students in that class wrote their papers to fulfill that same assignment, we were assigned to read each other's papers and reply: "Read the papers from the other members of your group in Moodle. Then interact with the papers in a discussion post. Your post can challenge an idea, affirm a thought, raise questions, summarize concepts, or build on the ideas of others."
There were SO many ways I wanted to take this paper, so many things I wanted to say... But here is what eventually showed up on my computer screen as I finished writing.

**I have changed my classmates' names in this post**

            My classmates have written papers about The Call (Os Guinness) and Let Your Life Speak (Parker Palmer) which both agree with me in places and also balance out my own thoughts well by expressing issue I took with the authors and which I could not incorporate into my paper.

            Travis saw the same value in what Palmer has to say that I saw: that Calling comes (in part) from the “deepest longings of [our] heart, . . . desires . . . and the prodding” God has given us. He points out that Guinness’s understanding of Call often “rubs against our ego. But this is not a restrictive calling! – it’s a completely freeing one.” This reminder is so important because we so often fear following God’s calling in our lives – we are afraid that we will miss out on life, or be unhappy following God’s Call.

            At times we echo the struggle Katherine expresses when she tells of how her heart says “GO!”, but then a struggle presents itself because she must deal with loans. But she also reminds us that “we know that wherever God leads is it [sic] to glorify him and there is nothing greater we can accomplish in our lives other than glorifying him.” Rachel also gives us this reminder, saying that, though we not be able to answer “‘what do you want to do when you grow up?’, we can rest assured that we serve a God who is bigger than what we do for a living.” 

            Travis reminds us that God’s call is freeing. Rachel and Katherine point us back to the truth which eases our fear of getting “stuck” due to paying off loans (possibly even when it delays going where our heart-fire draws us), because they remind us that even if/when following God means paying off loans, His plan is still worthwhile – and will ultimately bring us joy: “For me, following the call for my life brings me the most satisfaction and pleasure in my life” (Bryce).

            So now we remember that we can trust God, and Tim presents a timely question: “Where are the men and women who are willing to follow those callings and believe in the one through whom they can move mountains?” He reminds us that pursuing our calling will not be all fun and games, but that “we must act in relation to that calling – despite the discomfort that may come out of it.”

            As I mentioned earlier, though, my classmates do more than merely echo and expand on what I said in my own paper. They also fill in the gaps I had in my communication. One of these issues is the issue of Palmer seeming to leave God entirely too much out of the picture. 

            Sarah points out this significant issue with Palmer’s writing when she asks “If we are constantly listening to ourselves, how are we to listen to what God is telling us?” Bryce also points this problem out when he says that Palmer “does not offer a way through this troublesome journey” of “finding him- or herself”.

            He presents a solution to Palmer’s inadequate presentation of Calling through Guinness’s understanding of Calling. As Bryce shows, Guinness’s view is a completion and incorporation of Palmer’s understanding because Guinness provides both a means and purpose to seeking our Calling, “by asserting that God is the purpose of life”.

 

            But my classmate’s papers do even more than merely fill in the gaps and echo my own thoughts: Bryce causes us to think when he asks “How do you make sure you start off on the right dream?”

            Ultimately, this is what it’s all about, isn’t it? How do we make sure we head down the right path?
            How many times do we know of stories like this one: My friend was sick, so she was uncharacteristically skipping class to rest. As she headed to lunch, she met one of those ever-present camp representatives in the Corum. As they struck up a conversation, both parties quickly realized that my friend was exactly the person the camp wanted as a counselor: she was trained and competent in aspects of camp ministry that the recruiter expected to have to train all of her new staff in. My friend was passionate about the things the camp stood for. My friend had camp experience, but couldn’t go back to the camp she had previously worked at. My friend needed a summer job. It “just so happened” that she was sick, going to eat lunch at a time she typically would not have gone, that camp was there…

            We all know these stories. I have another friend who “happened” to be at a specific church, “happened” to strike up a conversation with someone she didn’t know, “happened” to hear of a camp which was more than her ideal summer job, while she was at the camp “happened” to hear about a ministry in Grand Rapids that worked with a country she “happened” to be rather interested in…

            [insert your own story of “happened” here…]

            What do so many of these stories have in common? “Happened”. But they all come because each person did the next right thing. I know we have all heard this concept before… but my first friend was taking care of the body God had given her, and my other friend was treating a random girl at her church as someone made by God – honoring this other person by paying attention to them.

            So, Bryce's question is valid: how do we start heading in the right direction?
            The answer is surprisingly simple. As we seek to live each moment of our days being who Christ would have us be, God directs our paths. Through chance encounters. Through disquieting feelings about our future plans. Through time in His Word. Through conversations.

            If God cares about each of us enough that He has a special plan and Calling for our individual lives (as I believe He does), then He is not going to leave us floundering, unable to find the good path He has laid for us to follow.

Calling...

In the last two weeks, for my Senior Capstone Seminar class, I have read two books on the idea of "calling" or "vocation". One of these was Let Your Life Speak, by Parker J. Palmer, and the other one was The Call, by Os Guinness.
I read each of these books, and then we got the assignment: Mini-Paper. "The Mini-Paper is not a mere reflection on your ideas or thoughts about the topic but a well-reasoned response based on your reading, research, and our classroom interaction." EEK.

So anyway, I don't know whether I fulfilled the requirements for this paper... but I like (most of) how my paper turned out, anyway.

**Disclaimer: I may or may not have finished writing this paper (in order to meet the 6 pm deadline) while playing some thinking/planning/quick-paced type games with my newest friend group on campus... So... don't judge my writing too badly because of this paper!**

            Guinness and Palmer both wrote books about calling. They have different ideas about what calling is, and they seem very contradictory when one reads the books.

            According to Guinness, Calling is two levels: on the first level, “our primary calling as followers of Christ is by him, to him and for him. . . . Our secondary calling, considering who God is as sovereign, is that everyone, everywhere, and in everything should think, speak, live, and act entirely for him.”[1] Both of these two pieces of “calling” are universal for all believers.

            The first part of this calling is also the same for everyone, whereas the second piece of this calling looks different for each person. Under this second piece, each person’s specific life path is part of his calling, though one’s job is not the same as one’s calling. Each person must find his main purpose in pursuing Christ. Another distinction Guinness makes is between corporate and individual calling: there are things to which the individual is called, but the Church also has a calling.[2]

            As each person seeks for his calling, Guinness explains that he must come to understand his gifts as given to him to be used in service of others, and to prepare one for the place where he is called.[3] This understanding is juxtaposed against understanding gifts as being given so as to make oneself happy or that a man must seek a position which fulfills his gifts. This understanding of calling leads one to be all he can be, to lead a “higher life” (though not in the sense of needing to be a monk or a pastor).

            By contrast, Palmer sees calling (or “vocation”, as he labels it) as being part of the person one already is. To him, when one pursues a position or “calling” too hard, he risks missing his calling. Palmer’s understanding is that calling is living to be who one naturally wants to be, following one’s abilities and desires. To Palmer, “Vocation at its deepest level is, ‘This is something I can’t not do, for reasons I’m unable to explain to anyone else and don’t fully understand myself but that are nonetheless compelling.’”[4]

            One of the biggest aspects of Palmer’s understanding of calling is seen in his appreciation for closed doors and recognition of things for which he is not gifted. He has learned to see each closed door (non-opportunity) as part of God’s leading in his life. Palmer does not see that he needs God to show him exactly where to go, but instead sees each place God shows him not to go as an integral piece to finding his calling. He also explains like this: “When I give something I do not possess, I give a false and dangerous gift, a gift that looks like love but is, in reality, loveless – a gift given more from my need to prove myself than from the other’s need to be cared for.”[5]

            Where Guinness sees calling as an intentional pursuit of God, Palmer sees it as the directing God already does in one’s life. Guinness’s “calling” requires all one’s attention; Palmer’s requires not trying too hard.

            When one first reads these books, as mentioned earlier, the ideas presented in them seem as though they are almost in direct conflict. I would suggest that the best understanding of “calling” is only found when one combines both ideas presented in these books. We cannot understand our calling as merely a pursuit of righteousness (similar to Guinness’s position), and we cannot understand our calling as merely “following our hearts,” as they say (similar to Palmer’s position).

            I think we must learn to see calling as being compelled because of and by Christ to live a life worthy of Him (or as close as we can come to such a life) which utilizes the good gifts, abilities and desires God has given us. 

            Our calling is not something we should be afraid of missing for it is comprised of all the ways (small or gargantuan) we seek God, and all the ways He directs us. When we pursue Him, He will direct us to our calling. One of the ways He does that is through our desires, hopes and dreams.

            We know that “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31a, ESV). Since we know that He has not made us bad, we know that He has made us good. When God made us, He also put in us desires. If “everything” God made was good, then can we not also know that the desires He gave us are good? We also know that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17, ESV). These desires (and hopes and dreams), which are gifts from God, we can use as directions toward our calling.[6]

            At the same time, these desires can easily become wrong when they are dis-ordered and placed in our lives as more important than our desires for God. This is where Guinness’s idea comes in – we must have Christ as our main goal, and only as seeing pursuit of Him as our primary calling will we be able to keep our desires ordered correctly behind Him.

            So, after reading both books, and after thinking through the fact that they are not actually nearly as contradictory as one originally thinks, he comes to the realization that these are actually complementary ideas. When one combines the two concepts, he comes to find a fuller and better understanding of Calling.

---

[1] Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Nashville, Tenn: Word, 1998), 31.

[2] Ibid., chapter 12.

[3] Ibid., chapter 6.

[4] Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000), 25.

[5] Ibid., 48.

[6] Obviously, this is/could be/should be an entire theological discussion by itself. Also obviously, I do not have time nor space to discuss it thoroughly here… Maybe someday I’ll be able to write the paper that’s begging to be written.