Jesus calls us 'ere the tumult

To ask most people what their calling is may be a stumper. It is a weighty question, one with vast scope and inherent import. It is intimidating at the very least. Our answers may be right but too easy (if said without reflection): I’m a pastor. To love God and others. To enjoy God and delight in God forever.

Two out of three of these are true for each of us. They don’t really tell us how to plan our day or to which of the many requests upon us we “should” say yes. Not without some serious pondering and prayer.

What invitations is God offering you? What is yours to do?

I can’t answer this for you. I can however give you a good list of questions:

How are your values and actions lining up?

What is most important in your life right now?

Where will you put your energy today, no matter how much you have?

What is breaking your heart?

What is healing your heart?

What is saving your life these days?

What has you so mad you can barely stand it?

What need of the world won’t leave you alone?

What are you good at doing? At being?

What do you love?

In this situation, what is actually needed from you?

I love the advice Rilke gave a young poet:

…have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves …. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

Choose one of these questions and live with it for a while. God delights in heartfelt questions, and God always responds. We just need to listen to our lives for the nudges, intuitions, epiphanies, and invitations.

I pray we may all have ears to hear.