Greetings from Floridia!
Thanks to those of you who are sharing some of your thoughts about Courage and Calling. For the next two weeks we will be looking at Chapter 2. I think this chapter is one of the most incredible chapters in any book I have read regarding finding one's place in the world. The part that just blew me away was the idea that my vocational identity is aligned in some way with how I uniquely see the pain and brokenness of the world.
I would love you all to share if and how you identify with this idea. Does one of the way Smith describes connect with how you see the world's borkenness?
Thanks to those of you who are sharing some of your thoughts about Courage and Calling. For the next two weeks we will be looking at Chapter 2. I think this chapter is one of the most incredible chapters in any book I have read regarding finding one's place in the world. The part that just blew me away was the idea that my vocational identity is aligned in some way with how I uniquely see the pain and brokenness of the world.
I would love you all to share if and how you identify with this idea. Does one of the way Smith describes connect with how you see the world's borkenness?
I became a teacher because of my compassion for suffering children. That is also how I came to be a children's evangelist (trained by the United Methodist Church). I ran an outreach ministry for 6 years in one of Las Vegas's scariest neighborhoods. People used to ask me, "How can you do that?" All I can say is, it would have been harder to not do it.
ReplyDeleteTwo friends, from when I lived in Oklahoma before, came to visit last week. They knew I had been struggling since I returned to Oklahoma. I haven't found a way to live my calling here and I had almost decided to return to Nevada. They began to talk to me about the gifts I have to give to others. I told them about this study and we began to talk about options I have to be who I am here in my home territory of Eastern Oklahoma. I have periodically over the years assessed and reassessed my gifts and abilities, as well as my unique personality and temperament. However, right now I am really confused about the deepest desire of my heart and WHERE I PERSONALLY SENSE THE NEEDS OF THE WORLD AND FEEL THE BROKENNESS OF GOD'S CREATION.
ReplyDeleteI know I am not going to travel the world to meet the needs of people around the world. I also know there are many needs among groups of people in Eastern Oklahoma. How can I be open to understanding those needs and responding to them as God helps me see HIS WAY of understanding and responding. I know I'm supposed to have faith that God will guide my perceptions.
One of my strengths has been the ability to understand different cultures in Oklahoma. We were "Indian Territoroy" before we became a state. The Five Civilized Tribes are in Oklahoma. There lands are soveriegn within the state of Oklahoma. In western Oklahoma there are many plains Indian Tribes. Just as within the other cultures of Oklahoma there is brokeness and pain as well as great joy and success. When I was here before I was able to work with the Native American children in many positive ways and learn many things from the Native American people. I'm not sure that is where God is calling me right now.
I can so relate to what Betty is saying. When I was about 35 I had quite a similar experience. There seemed to be so many things that were pulling at my heart, crying out for my attention and help, and I was totally overwhelmed. I had children still at home, so I too knew I wasn't going to be going "somewhere else" to do what God was wanting me to do but WHAT was it? In frustration I asked God to "place it on my doorstep" if He had an assignment for me. Literally, in less than two weeks I had a kid arrive at my home who needed a place to stay. Since that time, I have found many things "on my doorstep" and I'm finding that my "doorstep" extends a lot farther than I had originally thought.
ReplyDeleteI see the brokenness of the world in a number of places related to my life experiences, but the one that has wrapped itself most tightly around my heart comes from my experience in church. I went to the same church for 12 years. Sat in the same pew every Sunday. Send my children to the church's school. Went through all the motions of church.
ReplyDeleteI went through divorce and the day my divorce was final I called the church with my broken heart in hand to talk to a pastor. The kind person who answered the phone asked me which pastor knew me. I answered..."it doesn't matter, none of them know me". I cried my heart out to a kind, compassionate pastor who had no idea who I was.
This breaks my heart...there are many people who like me sit in churches week after week going through the motions and no one "knows them". We might go through all of the social niceties, but are not "known". I realize that much of the "fault" was my own since relationships are two way. I didn't reach out, but neither did anyone else. While I can live my calling with any person in my life, my primary calling is to those believers who want more in their relationship with God and with others. I don't want anyone to feel alone in a sea of other believers.