I have been through Henry Blackaby’s workbook called “Experiencing God” more than once. While it is a rich study, and worth your time to go through fully, I remember the key principles more easily. He uses the phrase “experiencing God” but he is really teaching us to be aware of God’s presence and availability. Seeking Him and walking with Him.
Here’s the summary as I grasped it:
–God is always at work around me
–God pursues a real and personal love relationship with me
–God invites me to become involved with Him in His work which always leads me to a crisis of belief requiring faith and action
–God speaks through the Holy Spirit, the Bible, prayer, circumstances and the church
–Joining God in what He is doing requires me to make major adjustments in my life
–I come to know God by experience as I obey Him and He accomplishes His work through me
I realized my “calling” in following Him was not a singular, static item as I had previously thought in my early years of walking with the Lord. Which may be why I spent so much time searching and questioning and trying to “land” on a description of what my calling (my focus, in fact) was: to be a leader? to follow a specific profession? To become a scholarly teacher? Searching for the specific was, I think, a way to avoid landing on any particular thing that would require a commitment from me. Something about “obedience” kept floating around elusively because I thought I needed to nail my “calling” first.
Blackaby helped me revise that thinking and as he demonstrated through numerous stories and examples, I just needed to realize God was at work all around me and through my life – I needed to be open and looking and receiving His message as I observed and obeyed.
So I loved Reagan Rose’s recent blog titled “If you seek your calling, look about you” – it affirmed Blackaby’s teaching with a big exclamation point. And yes, even at my age the Lord is at work around me and inviting me in with a loving experience getting affirmed by His guidance. (yes, “loving experience” can also be excruciating stuff)
Reagan Rose says he was a campus minister and college students would frequently ask about calling – who to marry, what to major in, which career to pursue. Always, it was some version of “what does God want me to do with my life”? And at my stage in life, the same intensity of questions appeared though some had different wording – have I been on the right track or do I need to switch up, what exactly is the work I need to focus upon in order to “finish well”, and how can I best put to work my variety of life experience and training in the middle of this crazy-busy life I am living? Same question “what does God want me to do with the rest of my life”?
Loved his answer to the college student inquiries – he said he would tell them the answer is actually simpler than they were making it. They didn’t need to try to peer into the future or read the tea leaves. Instead, I would tell them:
“If you seek your calling, look about you.”
Very helpful was Rose’s distinction made between calling and guidance. He says many of us have confused guidance and calling – but if we don’t get calling right, we aren’t going to get guidance right either.
He points out that we do need to seek divine wisdom and surround ourselves with a multitude of counselors when we need guidance, but we should not overlook the fact that we already know what He has called us to right here and now. If you are like me, when I read these words by Rose, I perked up searching for “the perfect calling answer for me”.
He did not disappoint, but it was different from the simple answer I wanted. He explained that we get so preoccupied with looking to the future that we neglect faithfulness in our present responsibilities – we miss the glory of the mundane. How and why? He says all of our responsibilities are important as we do them “as worship unto the Lord and love to our neighbor.”
He nailed this point down with some thoughtful questions for me – Am I seeking to be holy as He is holy, reflecting on the image of Christ in whatever roles or responsibilities I have right now? Working a job, attending school, serving in church or doing the dishes, my calling is to be maximally faithful to the task He’s given me.
Now THAT is a challenge. And he puts the “point” on it well when he says “If you seek your calling, look about you. Then pursue it with excellence, for His glory.”
Wise words, I need to camp on them! How about you?
