WHERE SHOULD I BE?

“Where should I be?” people ask.  “I don’t know whether to go teach 3^rd graders in South Dakota or open a small studio in Nashville?”

People ask the same question about where they should be, what they should do, in the church.  I usually respond by paraphrasing what Frederick Buechner says in Wishful Thinking about “Vocation.”  Since Fall is the season when we begin identifying prospective leaders for the coming year, and since many of you are wondering where to step into a group or ministry team here, here is what he says about how we can know where to be.

It comes from the Latin vocare, to call, and means the work a person is called by God.

There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of Society, say, or the Superego, or Self-Interest.

By and large a good rule for finding out is this.  The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done.  If you really get a kick out of your work, you’ve presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, the chances are you’ve missed requirement (b).  On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you’re bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a), but probably aren’t helping your patients much either.

Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do.  The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

What is your place?  Jesus said, “Come follow me, and I’ll show you how to catch people in God’s new life net.”  They followed!

Sometimes you see a need, you hear an invitation, and you know your place, don’t you?

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark