Rising To The Call
by Os Guinness
Chapter 3, Do What You Are?
Os Guinness opens his chapter with a short story of violinist Yehudi Menuhin He uses the famed musician's story to illustrate the principle that, "God normally calls us along the lines of our giftedness, but the purpose of giftedness is stewardship and service, not selfishness." (pg45) The idea is that God creates humanity. Then He equips individuals with certain abilities so that they can share those abilities with others. Therefore a calling is not limited to how one generates an income. Calling has to do with discerning who God created you to be and living into those perimeters. "Instead of, 'you are what you do,' calling says: 'Do what you are."' (pg. 47) Who we are has to do with what God created us to be which brings us back to the gifts God gives us. "In the biblical understanding of giftedness, gifts are never really ours or for ourselves. We have nothing that was not given us. Our gifts are ultimately God's and we are only "stewards." (pg48) Vocation then, can never be properly understand unless it's thought about in terms of those around us. Essentially, to understand vocation, one must ask, how does my calling equip me to love my neighbor?
The chapter concludes with four distinctions that ought to be kept in mind when considering vocation. First, a distinction exists between individual calling (examples: teaching, moving to ohio, play guitar ect.) and corporate calling (examples: make disciples, love my neighbor, confess my sins ect..) What I do as an individual ought to compliment what I do as a member of the human species and the Church of Jesus Christ. The second distinction is similar to the first. It is the distinction between special calling, which only some people receive, that is a direct supernatural revelation to an individual to do or be a certain thing, as distinguished from ordinary calling. The ordinary calling is the universal mandates God places on all people, to follow Christ. Third is a reminder to keep first things first and secondary things second. Understanding central calling compared to peripheral calling is this distinction. This is a problem when pastors elevate writing books over shepherding their flock. This is a problem when workers elevate earning a living over living a life worth working for. They've sacrificed what they were meant to do for something that's supposed to support doing what they were meant to do. Finally the readers are reminded of the distinction between the clear aspects of calling and the mysterious aspect of calling. It's tempting to want to discover all of God's plans for us right now. God doesn't work that way and He reveals elements of his vocation for us as we are capable of processing them.We must not strive too much for clarity or be too scared of ambiguity for both are implements in heavens tool chest.
After providing these four reminders Os Guinness concludes the chapter with the story of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's life including some parting wisdom from that one man army. "Many lives have a mystical sense, but not everyone reads it aright...The secret of a great life is often man's success in deciphering the mysterious symbols vouchsafed to him, understanding them and so learning to walk in the true path."(pg62)
Let Your Life Speak
by Parker J. Palmer
Chapter 3. When Way Closes
This chapter opens with a story as well. Palmer pulls a life lesson from his time at Pendle Hill, from a conversation with a wise Quaker woman. "there is as much guidance in what does not and cannot happen in my life as there is in what can and does happen, maybe more." (pg39) Knowing weaknesses is as important as knowing strengths. Knowing where you suck is as important as knowing where you thrive. Despite what Disney might say, not everyone can be anything they want to be if they believe in themselves and invest the time and effort. "Each of us arrives here with a nature, with both limits and potentials. We can learn as much about our nature by running into our limits as by experiencing our potentials. (pg42) Individuals were built for somethings and not for all things.Well intentioned people often set up goals for themselves to become like Muhatma Gandhi or Thomas Aquinas or George Washington. However noble and good these people might have been the reality remains that we ought only try to learn from them, not become miniature versions of them. Human beings are not machines that, if given enough time can be reprogrammed to do anything or be anyone. We are living beings that were designed to grow a certain way, blossom at a certain time and bear fruit in keeping with the season and the circumstances. If we focus too much on becoming somebody else and ignore who God made us to be be, we'll find our life tedious and actions returning void. "Only when I give something that does not grow within me do I deplete myself and harm the other as well, for only harm can come from a gift that is forced, inorganic, unreal." (pg50)
Reality is like the ocean constantly there but always in motion. God calls each of us into reality, a constant existence based on the perimeters which He has built for us with our abilities, our sensibilities, our instincts. All are called, no two are called exactly like, just as no two buckets of seawater are the same. Palmer concludes chapter 3 with the following summary."If we are to live our lives fully and well, we must learn to embrace the opposites, to live in a creative tension between our limits and our potentials. We must honor our limitations in ways that do not distort our nature, and we must trust and use our gifts in ways that fulfill the potentials God gave us. We must take the no of the way that closes and find the guidance it has to offer- and take the yes of the way that opens and respond with the yes of our lives." (pg55)
by Os Guinness
Chapter 3, Do What You Are?
Os Guinness opens his chapter with a short story of violinist Yehudi Menuhin He uses the famed musician's story to illustrate the principle that, "God normally calls us along the lines of our giftedness, but the purpose of giftedness is stewardship and service, not selfishness." (pg45) The idea is that God creates humanity. Then He equips individuals with certain abilities so that they can share those abilities with others. Therefore a calling is not limited to how one generates an income. Calling has to do with discerning who God created you to be and living into those perimeters. "Instead of, 'you are what you do,' calling says: 'Do what you are."' (pg. 47) Who we are has to do with what God created us to be which brings us back to the gifts God gives us. "In the biblical understanding of giftedness, gifts are never really ours or for ourselves. We have nothing that was not given us. Our gifts are ultimately God's and we are only "stewards." (pg48) Vocation then, can never be properly understand unless it's thought about in terms of those around us. Essentially, to understand vocation, one must ask, how does my calling equip me to love my neighbor?
The chapter concludes with four distinctions that ought to be kept in mind when considering vocation. First, a distinction exists between individual calling (examples: teaching, moving to ohio, play guitar ect.) and corporate calling (examples: make disciples, love my neighbor, confess my sins ect..) What I do as an individual ought to compliment what I do as a member of the human species and the Church of Jesus Christ. The second distinction is similar to the first. It is the distinction between special calling, which only some people receive, that is a direct supernatural revelation to an individual to do or be a certain thing, as distinguished from ordinary calling. The ordinary calling is the universal mandates God places on all people, to follow Christ. Third is a reminder to keep first things first and secondary things second. Understanding central calling compared to peripheral calling is this distinction. This is a problem when pastors elevate writing books over shepherding their flock. This is a problem when workers elevate earning a living over living a life worth working for. They've sacrificed what they were meant to do for something that's supposed to support doing what they were meant to do. Finally the readers are reminded of the distinction between the clear aspects of calling and the mysterious aspect of calling. It's tempting to want to discover all of God's plans for us right now. God doesn't work that way and He reveals elements of his vocation for us as we are capable of processing them.We must not strive too much for clarity or be too scared of ambiguity for both are implements in heavens tool chest.
After providing these four reminders Os Guinness concludes the chapter with the story of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's life including some parting wisdom from that one man army. "Many lives have a mystical sense, but not everyone reads it aright...The secret of a great life is often man's success in deciphering the mysterious symbols vouchsafed to him, understanding them and so learning to walk in the true path."(pg62)
Let Your Life Speak
by Parker J. Palmer
Chapter 3. When Way Closes
This chapter opens with a story as well. Palmer pulls a life lesson from his time at Pendle Hill, from a conversation with a wise Quaker woman. "there is as much guidance in what does not and cannot happen in my life as there is in what can and does happen, maybe more." (pg39) Knowing weaknesses is as important as knowing strengths. Knowing where you suck is as important as knowing where you thrive. Despite what Disney might say, not everyone can be anything they want to be if they believe in themselves and invest the time and effort. "Each of us arrives here with a nature, with both limits and potentials. We can learn as much about our nature by running into our limits as by experiencing our potentials. (pg42) Individuals were built for somethings and not for all things.Well intentioned people often set up goals for themselves to become like Muhatma Gandhi or Thomas Aquinas or George Washington. However noble and good these people might have been the reality remains that we ought only try to learn from them, not become miniature versions of them. Human beings are not machines that, if given enough time can be reprogrammed to do anything or be anyone. We are living beings that were designed to grow a certain way, blossom at a certain time and bear fruit in keeping with the season and the circumstances. If we focus too much on becoming somebody else and ignore who God made us to be be, we'll find our life tedious and actions returning void. "Only when I give something that does not grow within me do I deplete myself and harm the other as well, for only harm can come from a gift that is forced, inorganic, unreal." (pg50)
Reality is like the ocean constantly there but always in motion. God calls each of us into reality, a constant existence based on the perimeters which He has built for us with our abilities, our sensibilities, our instincts. All are called, no two are called exactly like, just as no two buckets of seawater are the same. Palmer concludes chapter 3 with the following summary."If we are to live our lives fully and well, we must learn to embrace the opposites, to live in a creative tension between our limits and our potentials. We must honor our limitations in ways that do not distort our nature, and we must trust and use our gifts in ways that fulfill the potentials God gave us. We must take the no of the way that closes and find the guidance it has to offer- and take the yes of the way that opens and respond with the yes of our lives." (pg55)