Recovering a Sense of Calling

Yesterday we reflected on a passage from 2 Kings 2 (vs 1-14), and Elisha’s faithfulness in a time of great uncertainty and change. 

I was recently listening to a TED talk by the author and journalist, Krista Tippett. She was speaking about this very thing – about how we live in a time when the ground we stand on is so uncertain. There are so many fractures in our society, so much change happening. And she spoke about how it is precisely in these times that we need to recover a sense of calling as an art for living.

I thought that was really interesting – to recover a sense of calling as an art for living… She claimed that we are not called merely to be professional people. We are called to heal and make whole the world around us – the proximate world – the world that we can see and touch. 

In that sense, every one of us has a calling on our own lives.

Fredrick Buechner has this great quote: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

I don’t know how that might look for you. I do know that you can’t do everything. I do know that it is easy to get overwhelmed by the needs of the world around you. I do know that faith and trust can easily be frayed… And at the same time, I also know, that if you are open to God’s calling on your life, God will use you in a powerful way. 

As with yesterday, my prayer today is for an extra measure of God’s grace and blessing for you. And whatever calling God may have placed on your heart, that you would find within it, his empowering Spirit and strength to continue. 

Let us pray: Today I thank you, O God, for your calling on each of our lives, for opportunities to touch the world around us with with your love and grace. I thank you for those who have heard your call, and for those who have stayed faithful. Please continue to heal us and renew us so that we would be channels of your peace. Amen.