CHAPTER 1
What Is "Call" for the Christian?
... let each of you lead the life ... to which God called you.–1 Cor. 7:17
People call us to get our attention, to make contactwith us, to draw us closer to them. So it is with God.A call may come as a gradual dawning of God's purposefor our lives. It can involve an accelerating sense ofinner direction. It can emerge through a gnawingfeeling that we need to do a specific thing. On occasion,it can burst forth as a sudden awareness of a paththat God would have us take. Call may be emphaticand unmistakable, or it may be obscure and subtle. Inwhatever way call is experienced, through the centuriesGod has chosen to speak to us and bids us to listen. "Iwill instruct you and teach you the way you should go;I will counsel you with my eye upon you" (Ps. 32:8).
God calls us on many levels: God calls creation, callsthe Church, calls my congregation, and calls me,today, to reach me where I am now. God calls theentirety of my life. And at specific times and places,God calls me to particular actions.
God calls each of us. There are a variety of calls, andno one call is inherently better or higher than anyother. The call of a priest, monk, or nun, howeversacred, is, in and of itself, not superior to the call of anarchitect designing a house, a mechanic repairing acar, or a nurse caring for the sick. It is our faithfulnessto God and not our station in life that honors a call.
We need to look beneath external facts to determinea call. For example, two men might be wrestling withwhat seems to be the same question: whether or notto volunteer at a breakfast program for homelesspeople. For one, the call might turn out to be to stayhome and spend some much-needed time with hischildren. For the other, the call might be to work atthe breakfast program and help his family develop asense of supporting him in service to others.
God speaks to us through the language of everydayevents. Each new moment of life, each new situation,the present condition of a person or community,of events, time, place, people, and circumstances—allhold clues to God's call. Thus, we often find our callsin the facts, circumstances, and concrete experiencesof daily life.
Sometimes call comes through what is imposed onus. Teresa of Avila, for instance, wrote several booksbecause her confessors told her to. Today, with hindsight,we can recognize that through her obedienceshe was honoring God's call. Similarly, DietrichBonhoeffer found in prison a call to minister to otherswho were imprisoned.
Any matter, large or small, may relate to our call.A call could encompass a decision about whetherto take a new job, go back to school, volunteer at ashelter. A call could draw us to a personal relationshipin a new or different way. A call could focus onwhether to resist paying taxes as a form of protestor whether to sell all our belongings and move toCentral America. A call may not be so much a callto "do" as to "be." An active man may become sickand unable to do what he has done before; yet whilehe may not be called to be sick, he may be calledin sickness to reflect God's presence and love in anew way. So call should be understood in the widest,most inclusive sense, to encompass what we do andwho we are.
This is not to say that in every decision there is a callfrom God or that God is always giving us guidanceregarding every question we face. Sometimes we needto act based upon our assessment of what is good—weneed to make a decision. In such a situation, elevatingthe decision to a call from God will not make it one.
On the other hand, because a matter seems unimportantdoes not foreclose a call from God. As with God'scall to Moses, the desire to minister at a soup kitchenor as a school volunteer can burn brightly with thefire of God's call.
A call might lead us to pursue a certain occupationor career, as a person who feels called to help othersin turmoil might become a pastoral counselor. Quiteoften a call becomes visible in a specific job, task, orendeavor. But a call can never be reduced to suchactivities. The same counselor may also be calledto care for family, friends, and community as well asclients and thus must balance all of these in order to befaithful to the call. In a world that puts much emphasison success, a too-narrow concern with occupation orcareer can make us deaf to our calls.
We may be called beyond ordinary occupations—to beprophets. A prophet does not have to be a Moses ora Jeremiah. Amos, for example, was a shepherd wholeft his flock to become a prophet in Israel, returninghome when his years of prophesying came to an end.So, too, any one of us may be called to a propheticrole at a specific time and place for a specific issue.
Not only is every call unique, but the hearing of everycall is unique also. One sign that God may be calling is acertain restlessness, a certain dissatisfaction with thingsas they are. Other signs of God's call may be a sense oflonging, yearning, or wondering; a feeling of being ata crossroads; a sense that something is happening inone's life, that one is wrestling with an issue or decision;a sense of being in a time of transition; or a series ofcircumstances that draw one into a specific issue.
While role models are helpful, we are not calledto copy other people. Rather, we are to becomefully the people God created us to be, living ourown lives in response to our own calls—as Jesuslived out his life faithful to God's call for him. Soit is that hearing one's call is akin to discoveringone's self.
Even when a need exists and we are well qualifiedto meet it, we are not necessarily called to respondto it. Something may seem logical for us to do,but that does not mean that God calls us to do it.In ordinary circumstances, people analyze facts inorder to come to a conclusion. While this is a usefulexercise, it is not the same thing as discerningGod's call.
This is the irrational seasonWhen love blooms bright and wild.Had Mary been filled with reasonThere'd have been no room for the child.
Ultimately, it is not what the evidence suggests butthe source of the call that gives it authority.
Similarly, simply because a task or undertaking isgood to do does not mean that we are called to doit or that we should continue doing it. To be doingwhat is good can be the greatest obstacle to doingsomething even better. We may understand onlywith hindsight why we were called to do somethingdifferent.
Call usually involves service or benefit to others.In fact, a sense of call may be suspect if it does notinvolve service. Nonetheless, the fruits of callare sometimes a long time in coming; indeed, wemay never perceive them. Things we say or do canhave a profound impact we may never know about.Sometimes the fruits of our life manifest themselvesat a much later time, perhaps even after our death.The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us of this in itsaccount of Abraham and Sarah:
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was calledto set out for a place that he was to receive as aninheritance; and he set out, not knowing wherehe was going. By faith he stayed for a time inthe Land he had been promised.... By faith hereceived power of procreation, even though he wastoo old—and Sarah herself was barren—becausehe considered him faithful who had promised.
All of these died in faith without having receivedthe promises, but from a distance they saw andgreeted them. (Heb. 11:8, 9, 11, 13)
Every true call is a call to obey God; indeed, the wordobedience derives from the Latin audire, which means"to listen." Jesus came to include us in his divineobedience, saying, "If you love me, you will keep mycommandments" (John 14:15), and "They who havemy commandments and keep them are those who loveme ..." (John 14:21). If we love God, we want to livein harmony with God—we want to hear what God hasto say, and we want to act on what we hear. St. Paulrefers to this as "obedient from the heart" (Rom. 6:17).
While call requires response and obedience, we willnot be given a road map. Our response to a call is notmechanical application. Rather, call requires that wetake responsibility. We will not necessarily be calledto come up with a correct answer, as in a crosswordpuzzle, but something freer and more creative. Weare given building blocks to see what can be donewith them, using for the task all of our intelligence,creativity, sensitivity, and love. Our critical facultiesare required; we must use them the best way we can,constructively and with love.
Awareness of a call may give rise to a feeling ofinadequacy, as illustrated in the classical biblical callsof Moses, Jeremiah, and Isaiah. Moses said no fivetimes to God (Exod. 3:11, 13; 4:1, 10, 13). Moses'excuses included not knowing God's name, not beinga person of consequence, not having credibility, andnot being a good speaker. Jeremiah responded to God,"Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak,for I am only a boy" (Jer. 1:6). Before Isaiah could say,"Here I am," in response to God's call, he expressedhis profound sense of unworthiness with the cry, "Iam a man of unclean lips" (Isa. 6:5).
Yet God not only calls but empowers—although thepower may come only as we respond. Conversely, ifwe don't respond to God's call, we may cut ourselvesoff from the Lord's strength and become increasinglyblind and deaf to God's promptings. To ignore orresist a call may "fracture us further, widening the splitbetween what we subscribe to inwardly and what wedo outwardly."
Our calls are always evolving. If we are to respond,we need to listen, not only today but as todayevolves into tomorrow. In times of transition, weneed to listen with extra care. "If we go onlistening, we feel God pulling us, drawing us intoanother current, a larger, deeper, stronger one thanour usual little force."
Morning by morning he wakens—wakens my earto listen as those who are taught.The Lord God has opened my ear....-Isa. 50:4–5
CHAPTER 2
Call to Ministry
Jesus said to them ... "As the Father has sent me,so I send you." –John 20:21
Ministry is the active response to God's call. Christianministry is more than simply doing good. Rather, it issomething that Christ does in us and through us andthat we do in and through Christ. As ministers of stateact not on their own but on the authority of the statesthat send them, so, too, we act not on our own but onthe authority of God who calls us. Jesus said, "You didnot choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you togo and bear fruit, fruit that will last ..." (John 15:16).
Ministry comes from the same root as minus, whichmeans "less." Jesus said, "For who is greater: the onewho is at the table or the one who serves? Is it notthe one at the table? But I am among you as one whoserves" (Luke 22:27). Paul, too, reminds us that ourLord "did not count equality with God as a thing tobe grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of aservant" (Phil. 2:6-7; RSV). Our call, then, will placeus in the role of a minister, on God's behalf, in serviceto God's creation.
We do not need to be ordained to have a ministry.The Book of Common Prayer specifies, "The ministersof the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests, anddeacons." All Christians are called to minister bothto one another and to those around them by participatingin God's work in the world. Ministry can occurbetween child and parent; among workers in an officeor factory; between neighbors and friends. Hospitalitymay be ministry: welcoming the stranger, receivingand treating the people we encounter each daywarmly and generously. Ministry includes prayer forone another. Ministry occurs in innumerable forms,some of which require ordination.
A minister is also one who waits, ready to respondas called. A waiter serves not only when running tothe kitchen but also while waiting attentively. In thisspirit, we await God's call to act in service to others.
Genuine ministry involves both giving and receiving.This reciprocity is central. Ministry "to" is patronizing,for it fails to acknowledge our own need; nor does itrecognize the mutual nurturing experienced when weare brought to Christ through the people we serve.Those who minister at a soup kitchen, for example,often find themselves deeply enriched by those theyserve.
Doing good things—volunteer work, for instance—maynot be ministry if God is not the motivatingforce—even if the person doing them is a Christian.On the other hand, if God is the motivating force,even those who do not consciously bear the name ofChrist may participate in God's work. God used Cyrus,king of Persia, to release Israel from captivity, saying,"... I call you by your name, I surname you, thoughyou do not know me" (Isa. 45:4). One task of theChristian, then, is to recognize, affirm, and celebrateChrist's reconciling action in others, including non-Christians.A true minister is "anybody who is thechannel to others of God's love, and is willing to sharesomething of the cost of that love; and whose eyes areopen to perceive God's presence everywhere and ineverybody."
Whoever serves me must follow me, and whereI am, there will my servant be also....–John 12:26
CHAPTER 3
What Is Discernment?
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to seewhether they are from God.... –1 John 4:1
Discernment comes from the Latin word discernere,which means "to separate," "to distinguish," "to determine,""to sort out." In classical spirituality, discernmentmeans identifying what spirit is at work in a situation:the Spirit of God or some other spirit. Discernment is"sifting through" our interior and exterior experiencesto determine their origin. Discernment helps a personunderstand the source of a call, to whom it is directed,its content, and what response is appropriate. Discernmentalso involves learning if one is dodging a call, isdeaf to a call, or is rejecting a call.
Discernment is a gift from God. But it also includes anintentional attempt on our part to hear God's call in ourlife. It takes work; it is also a matter of grace. It involvesour full humanity as well as communion with God.
Many voices call us: voices of culture, career, upbringing,worldview, peer pressure, ego, self-interest. Thesevoices may be good in and of themselves yet maydrown out the voice of God. How can we distinguishbetween God's call and other calls? How can weevaluate whether a call springs from a desire forsecurity or comfort or success, rather than from God?How can we verify that a call comes from God?
No rules provide definitive answers to thesequestions. And some rules that do exist provide pooror incomplete guidance. The experiences of the earlyQuakers illustrate this. One test some Quaker sectsused to confirm God's call was that a "true" call wasalways contrary to one's own will. The assumptionthat a "cross to the will" meant taking up the crossof Christ often produced absurd results. For example,some Friends walked naked in the streets becauseit was "contrary to [their] own will or inclination"and, therefore, "in obedience to the Lord." Anothertest was reliance on a selected passage of Scripture.Frequently, however, this meant (and can still mean)merely choosing some biblical passages and ignoringothers to confirm a precharted course.
The ability to discern comes from living the life ofthe Spirit, a process of growth involving an ever-greaterintegration of desires, feelings, reactions, andchoices with a continuing commitment to abide inChrist. Indeed, through integrating the actions andrelationships of life into one's identity with Christwe come to feel whether various impulses moveus toward or away from the Spirit. The ability todiscern develops in a relationship with God, as onebecomes rooted and grounded in the heart of God.Thus, people who abide in the Lord are more likely tobe able to hear and distinguish calls.
As we move toward spiritual maturity, we move beyondthe need for specific rules and answers into the darknessof God where we must act in faith rather than certainty.In discernment we move through and beyond our feelings,our thoughts, and our reasoning about what Godwants of us, to be led by God's Spirit toward action.Discernment does not imply fully comprehending God'swill, but rather it raises the question, What is the nextstep God wants me to take?
Discernment may be understood as "apprehending"rather than "comprehending." Although discernmentinvolves use of reason, the process is delicate and easilystifled by excessive analysis. Pascal observes, "Theheart has its reasons, that reason does not know."Discernment of call involves intuition and insight,"... for that which has not been told them, they shallsee, and that which they have not heard, they shallunderstand" (Isa. 52:15; RSV). As we respond in faithand action, we gain insight.
When we turn our hearts to God, we experience areorientation of values deep within us. To paraphraseJan Wood's address to the Friends' Consultation onDiscernment, one of two things may happen. Eitherwe become increasingly astute and wise as we liveout our new orientation—we walk in the Spirit. Or,if we are not true to the new life that is rising withinus—if we deny, repress, or live in contradiction toit—we invite internal havoc and trigger war withinourselves. Our lives may take on a frantic quality.
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