Finding your calling
I just came across a blog entry on Gracious Uncertainty by Wayne Jacobsen and wanted to share the following paragraph with you:
A college student asked me Sunday night how someone could know what their calling is. I had answered that the best way to know our calling is to simply wake up every day in the love of the Father, and then let that love spill out of us through the day as we respond to the opportunities that cross our paths. Eventually we’ll find ourselves smack in the middle of what gives him and us so much pleasure. We mostly know our calling by looking back and seeing how God has fulfilled himself in us, rather than figuring it out in advance and setting a strategy to get there.
We are so trained to plan everything, and so we always want to figure things out in advance, instead of following the Lord step-by-step. Sometimes I wonder if this is because we like to be independent and therefore don’t want to depend on God’s daily guidance either.
I think it is challenging to learn to “live from the heart Jesus gave us” but it is a good thing to learn to follow this heart.
I think this was an interesting quote. I wonder why we’re so afraid of living from the heart? Maybe it’s because the world tells us our heart is not enough. It is wrong and leads us into trouble. It says, “forget your heart, deny it, and do things just so.” This might be the cause of all our consternation. Hmm. I could be wrong, but that seems to be my current understanding.
@Tara – I guess part of the problem is that “the heart Jesus gave us” has been buried by many things and then our intuitive reaction is not what Jesus would want us to do. Often when we or the Bible speak about our “heart” it’s the heart that is damaged by our own sinful nature (“flesh”) or other people’s sin against us (hurts, trauma, abuse). Which leads to different results than following “the heart Jesus gave us.”
Excellent post and excellent response, Jutta. I, too, was thinking about the altered heart as unable to be a good guide.
When Peter acted (or reacted) from the heart and sliced off the ear of the Roman soldier when he was faced with conflict he was rebuked by Jesus. Of course, he was probably used to Jesus correcting him by this time, and it wouldn’t be the last. The great thing about the example of Peter’s impulses is that he constantly falls back on Jesus. Now, if we act and fail based on our heart’s impulses and we are prideful then there is no hope. On the other hand, if we step out doing what we believe is the best thing to do relying all the while on Jesus then we will end up, as your post stated, “smack in the middle of what gives him and us so much pleasure.” That gives me hope. That gives me confidence to keep stepping out on what my heart is leading me to do. That gives me courage to face resistance, mistakes and setbacks.
Good stuff, Jutta.
@Angie – thank you so much.
Reading your comment I realized how much I got used to using the word “heart” for the true heart Jesus gave us but which we have to rediscover and undig underneath all the stuff of life. So, when Peter sliced off the ear, I would not say that he reacted from his heart, but from his “sarx” (flesh, old man, selfish nature).
As the Life Model says, the challenge is to live from our heart (meaning the one Jesus gave us) not from our hurts. Sounds like I should write another post about this. 😉