I have been spending a fair amount of time lately reflecting on the concept of call. When each of us is baptized, we are called to new life; a life lived in the Spirit and conformed to Christ. What we do with our lives is all part and parcel of our baptismal calling. It will play out differently for each of us. Many of us think that God's calling in our lives involves something out of the ordinary, or perhaps even a calling to a religious vocation - after all, pastors talk about being 'called' to the ministry.
In truth, God's call to us comes in so many more simple and common ways. The other day my spiritual director was telling me about her nephew. He made the observation that so many of his co-workers couldn't wait to get away from their families and it puzzled him. In contrast, he noted that he couldn't wait to get home to his family at the end of the day and even though he was tired, his greatest delights were the times he was able to spend with his three children. He concluded - "I think I am called to be a father." I suspect that he was quite correct about that - and so did his aunt, the nun.
That is the way our calls from God are. Calls to be in relationship with others in ways that reflect and express our Creator's own love. Relationships of intimacy and self-giving love that are played out of the fields of every day life. Reading a bedtime story to our children. Taking extra time with a student in our classroom. Visiting our friends or neighbors who are hospitalized or homebound. Each of these small acts of human kindness are love in action and they are responses to God's baptismal calls in our lives.
In that same conversation with my spiritual director we discussed my own discernment about my calling - as a pastor, yes, but also as a child of God first and foremost. I was struck by her challenge to me. "Open yourself up to what God is calling you to do each day and each moment," she said. "In reality the moment is all we have in which to live." I have been sitting with that notion for a few days now. I am finding a newly discovered sense of delight and purpose in discerning every moment what God is calling me to do. What I know is that is really not as tough as it may sound. God's call is always first and foremost to love. So any time an opportunity to act in love toward others presents itself in the common, ordinary fabric and moments of my life, I know that the Spirit is calling me.
The least, the last, the lost, the lonely, and the ones we called loved ones - we have only to look into their eyes and see Christ. In every moment, every decision, and every choice that comprises the fabric of our days we can listen for God's call. Discernment about the little things is relatively uncomplicated. When the opportunity is clearly an opportunity to love and/or serve others then ... Hello ... God is calling.
Make you discover the delight in the call of the moment.
PK (+)
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