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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Buechner on Vocation

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet –– Frederick Buechner

Thoughts?

Ensemblee_ thegladox at 1:51 PM

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7 comments:

Simon Elliott said...

I vote 'yes'.

I find this such a clarifying thought. First it assumes a congruence of desire and need and doesn't make the mistake of peddling the idea that where God wants us most is what we find most abhorrent!

March 27, 2007 at 2:49 PM
Karyn said...

I’m nodding affirming-ly at you Simon – although my relief at NOT being a nurse in deepest darkest Africa is proportional to the number of years I spent expecting God to make me do just that…

I was talking about it with Mum – she thinks ‘gladness’ could maybe be replaced with ‘peace’, and I think I agree. Partly because it’s been my lived experience, and partly because ‘gladness’ shades into ‘makes me happy’, and the logic of ‘call’ then becomes, ‘I really like doing this, it makes me feel good, therefore it must be what God wants’, which doesn’t seem consistent with, say, Jesus’ experience on the cross. He was in the right place, but I don’t think he woke up on the Thursday going, ‘gee whiz, I’m gonna get crucified this weekend, that’ll be tops…’ (Is that blasphemous? I don’t mean for it to be.)

March 28, 2007 at 10:56 AM
Anonymous said...

As opposed to Buechner on Vacation - "the place where the airline takes you to is the place where the travel agents commission and your bank account meet."

March 29, 2007 at 12:09 AM
Anonymous said...

'voca' is where we get 'call' and 'vocals'. but what role do you reckon paid work plays in a call or a vocation?

March 29, 2007 at 12:11 PM
Simon Elliott said...

I think the main deal is that if we've accepted the incredibly benevolent invitation to be followers of Jesus, we've signed up to a full time job: work, home, church, traffic, queues - everywhere. The tricky part perhaps is the distinction between work that is 'in the ministry' and work beyond that.

My take is that there are Levites amongst (heck, I'm one of 'em) and these are folk called specifically to minister to other 'full-time ministers' working in contexts beyond the temple/church to equip, lead and encourage them towards God.

Not everyone was a Levite in the Old Testament - about one-twelfth...but they all served Yahweh with their heart, soul and mind.

So, there's a distinction, though not an elevation of one over the other. We're all called to minister - all over the shop. In away, it gets trickier when we compartmentalise the call. There needs to be a sense of wholeness and integration in all facets of our life. Our call is to bring ou the God-colours in the world through being salt and light wherever we spend our time. Work, for example.

March 29, 2007 at 12:31 PM
Anonymous said...

I don’t have a proof text for this, but I’m increasingly convinced that the ‘call’ can be serial or composite:

Serial: THAT in the past, THIS now, THAT OTHER THING in the future.
Composite: THAT and THIS and THAT OTHER THING all at the same time.
Where none of the things is the call or your gladness or the world’s need on it’s own, but together, over a season or a lifetime, they are.

‘Call’ then makes more sense in non-First World contexts, where people spend a lot of time on survival, doing things that they may have no particular passion or aptitude for, but which it’s important that they do to the best of their ability anyway. (So, a gifted preacher spends most of his days on subsistence farming – I’d argue that it’s still a thing he’s called to do on the basis that it’s the pragmatically necessary thing… I read a book that talked about the Invisible Western Problems we create for ourselves, which is a thought that often pulls me up in this area…)

It also reflects the experience of my favourite ‘minority’, women, who for generations have lived lives that cross paid and unpaid work, sometimes prioritising their own creative work, sometimes setting that aside to do various kinds of ‘caring’ work. (And yes, caring can be creative. But sometimes it consumes so much of the self that it’s not). Oh, and a thing I’ve learnt from that: sometimes following ‘the call’ is about gracefully and in a timely way realising when it’s time to do something else, and making those transitions well. Hard to do, but good when you can. (Also, just to be clear, I don’t think there are necessarily masculine and feminine versions of obedient following, just that this is/has been visible in the lives of women).

Also, if call is serial or composite, then it’s easier to see that although there is gladness in being in the right place, you’re not necessarily going to be ALL glad. There may be things that I would like to do that aren’t ‘now’ things – they may be ‘past’ things, or ‘future’ things, or even ‘not ever’ things. I don’t think we necessarily get all our switches flipped at any one time – or at all.

I guess I think the call is first to identity – to be Jesus-like – and I don’t think there is only one way for me to do that. As long as I’m within the category of ‘becoming increasingly like Jesus’, if I’m on a suboptimal path, I’m a good chance of being directed onto a more optimal path.

March 29, 2007 at 3:00 PM
Simon Elliott said...

Yeah, nice work Karyn. I wonder sometimes too whether our call, though malleable, remains essentially consistent. It's application though, can vary dramatically. Perhaps it's potential to be expressed is muted for seasons and given voice in others...but it doesn't tend toswing visciously. I rarely see it swing visciously...I just see peoples over-arching calling being expressed in different forums and on different mediums.

I read last night on 9CC that Fi rates her dominant gifting as encouragement. I agree with her. And I reckon it will be expressed whether she's teaching, leading worship or being a great mother. Perhaps in some ways our calling is the essence of what God has planted in us...that which longs to be given voice. And, at times, we experience the cognitive/soulful dissonance of feeling like a square peg in a round hole. Sometimes that's cause we need rough edges removed - other times it's our heart searching for the gladness that comes from feeling of praxis reasonating with calling.

March 29, 2007 at 3:15 PM

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