A few weeks ago we completed our annual Missionary Candidates’ Briefing Course. Fifteen candidates and missionary inquirers from here and there around the country (and a few from elsewhere in the world) gathered at our offices on Clifton Avenue. We spent nearly a month together – in lively dialogue about kingdom ambitions, missionary commissions, strategic futures, effective training, preparation, and many other things.
It has set me to thinking about callings. There are so many ways to get our “callings” wrong.
Sometimes we suppose that our fundamental calling is to go somewhere, for example – one of the most basic and errant ways we get our callings wrong, in my estimation. The kind of people who come to Briefing Course may sometimes think this way.
Sometimes we suppose that our fundamental calling is to go somewhere and then to do something – an elaboration of the same, basic misconception. This, too, is a common misunderstanding among the sort of people who come to Briefing Course. People, maybe, like you.
Our fundamental calling is not to go somewhere, or do something, or perform some activity, or practice some profession. Our fundamental calling is to Someone. Christians are called to a relationship, first of all. We are called to be – and only then to do anything at all.
“Follow me and I will make you fish for people,” Jesus advised his disciples (Matthew 4:19; Mark 1:17). But please note: the following precedes the making. We aren’t called, precisely, to fishing. We are called to Someone, first of all. We become something. Only then – only then – are we made to fish, or do we find a place to cast our line somewhere in the world.
This dynamic is true for the entire Christian life, in fact. We don’t build holiness into our lives by force of will; we become holy by relationship to the Holy One. We don’t build goodness, discipline, contentment, or effectiveness into our lives by an act of mental fiat: we cannot will ourselves to Christian goodness or missionary effectiveness, one fine day, as we might will to change our wardrobe. We are called to Someone. We build our lives and ministries always in relationship to Him.
It is important to keep this straight.
If we do not have this fundamental reality straight, we might come to think that our mission in life is to spread the knowledge of Christianity, for example. Most definitely, it is not. We may think that our mission is denominational or institutional in character, that it is a matter of theological propositions or intellectual assertions, that it is effected by jumping particular churchly hoops or enlisting in particular projects or activities. Our mission, I suppose, may involve all of these things from time to time. But these are not our calling.
We are called to know Jesus Christ. We are called to surrender before him. We are not called to spread religion around the world – not even Christianity. It is our mission to spread the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. “Through us, [God] brings knowledge of Christ,” Paul reminds his Corinthian friends (2 Corinthians 2:15. The Message). “For we are the aroma of Christ to God” (NRSV). We are simply called to know Jesus; we are called then to make him known.
This is the basic perspective of faith – and it puts everything else into perspective.
I like to tell our guests at Briefing Course that God isn’t particularly interested in all of their fine abilities, all of their impressive skills, all of their brave resolve to go anywhere and do anything for him. He wants them. He wants you. He wants to hold you in his lap, call you to his side, look you in the eye, and say: “You are mine.”
He wants you!
And once he has you – why, then, you will see – your brave resolve will follow in its time. He will fill you and imbue you with the aroma of Jesus Christ. He will make you his aroma in the world.
It is important to get our callings right. We don’t start with fishing; we start with following. We don’t start with doing; we start with being. We will find a place to cast our line and join in the harvest effort, somewhere in the world. Yet we don’t start there, exactly.
We are called to Someone. We start with Jesus.
Other posts in this Callings series:
I think where we get confused is when we read Matthew 28:19
‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit….’
And then feel it our duty to leave home and Go… Yet we can’t go before we know… Who IS Jesus and what does he mean to me? We can’t talk to anyone until that is clear. But if explaining is difficult, then the alleged quote (or paraphrase) from St. Francis of Assisi may be all that we need to do no matter where we are. “Preach the Gospel every day; when necessary use words.”
For truly it is our actions that show others what knowing Jesus can do, and that we can do anywhere, down the street or across the sea.
Today’s Utmost from Oswald Chambers speak well to this …