Called to Communicate

There have been many books written on calling, and many people have very different points of view on how to discern your calling and how to hear from the Lord. Saying such as: "Think about what in the world makes you the most angry - that's where you're called." Or "Don't know where God is calling you? You're already there. Keep going."

I definitely can't say I know the formula on how to know where God's calling you, but I do have confidence in where God is calling Dan and I. I also have confidence that our calling is not only something that will happen in the future. Presently, he's calling me to the kids and my co-workers in our church's child care center, and he's calling Dan to the people he sees each day. He's also currently calling us to our Equip training with Wycliffe. At Equip, we will be trained in how to begin our Partnership Development, and once Equip is over we will be called to our partners. We will continue to be called to our current work places and the people we interact with there as well.

Are You A Screen Looker?

I have heard it said that we cannot control what happens to us in life - but that we can control how we react to that which is happening to us.   I have also heard it said that the only thing in life we can control is our perspective.   I like both of these thoughts, and I believe they are related.  See, I think that how we react to life’s lemons is based on our perspective.  Simply put, we can’t react by making lemonade unless we already have the perspective that these sour tasting, eye burning, impossible to peel oblong spherical fruits may be a blessing.

I thought about listing examples here about chipped paint on a car not being the end of the world because you can use that to teach your son about forgiveness.  But I’m going to skip that and let you figure that out on your own.  Instead, I want to explore how we can even begin thinking about lemonade when we wish that our biggest problem was chipped paint.  What about when we are faced with the death of a child?  Or what about when we can’t think of any way out other than divorce?   How do we make lemonade then?  I wish we lived in a world where if we prayed hard enough, had enough faith, and did enough good things, life turned out well.  But the reality is: that’s not how life works.  If you disagree, we can talk after you meet Job in Heaven.

I Believe

Our pastor completed his “requirement” to preach at least one “Christmas is too commercialized” sermon earlier this month.   He almost lost me near the middle of the sermon when he made some outlandish charges suggesting that we could ask our family to not buy us any presents in order for us to remember that Christmas was originally about the birth of Christ, not the getting and giving of presents.  While I will admit that I will not being doing this exactly, he did have a good point, mainly - what are we getting excited over?

Near the end of the service he suggested a Christmas morning without a focus on gifts (or any gifts at all).  We would wake up, read the Christmas story together as a family and then pray together.  Perhaps sing a Christmas hymn or song, and then spend time as a family enjoying our day and the relationships we have.  I like this model, because it has always been a temptation for me to focus on the things that we get and give instead of on Christ.  Christ is the focus, and the reason.  It’s His birthday, not ours!  Oh, I forgot to mention, our pastor also recommended a birthday cake for Jesus!