[Vocation] comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what is is truly about...Vocation does not mean a goal that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear. Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. -- Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation Having just returned from my synod's annual candidacy retreat, vocation and call were pushed to the front of my mind. Also, it was Advent and I was surrounded by the example of Mary and her willingness and openness to accept without understanding the call of God. A call that meant at best a very difficult time for her in her culture and which at worst could mean her death. In addition, she gave her assent without really understanding the HOW - it's mystery, my child. I, unlike Mary, am not good at this mystery stuff - I want to have the how and why clearly defined prior to taking a step in any direction. One of the pastor’s at the retreat brought up the following conundrum: “I love words. I often read passages in books, even sermons, which state the things of God much better than I ever could. Why should I preach with my words when I could just read the eloquent words of others.” Why indeed? I've always thought that my patron saint should be Jonah. (Of course, there are two problems with this line of thinking. First, Lutherans definitely don't have patron saints. Second, Jonah was/is no saint - not even beautified come to think of it.) Jonah who received his call to the people of Nineveh, decided against said call and promptly headed off in the opposite direction to Tarshish. Now there's a saint I can relate to - out and out defiance! Of course, there was that whole business of the storm, the fish and being unceremoniously vomited up on the shore that eventually made Jonah, grudgingly, willing to head off to Nineveh. Contrasted with Mary's willingness to accept God's plan for her as … [Read more...]

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4, NRSV) It is so easy for us to lose our focus and shift our sight away from God. With all of the distractions in our lives -- it's amazing that we manage to achieve a God focus as often as we do! With discipline and practice we can learn to reconnect with God and to bask in the light of his love for us. The more regularly that we take time to reconnect -- the less distance that develops between us and God. Just as an athlete must train regularly in order to maintain optimum fitness and to achieve the development of the skills that are required to succeed in their sport, so to, we must train in order to maintain our connection with the Divine -- that all important connection that grounds us and provides us with the firm foundation that we need to survive. Staying open and actively practicing connecting with God provides the key to our transformation. We were created for a purpose and gifted accordingly. Our Father loves us and desires to give us the desires of our hearts. We can rest assured in the confidence of this promise and thus boldly approach God with our deepest desires. As we approach, we lay our desires open before Him and release them into his loving arms. This is not an easy task! It can only happen through the faith and trust that we have nurtured during our regular times of prayer. Praying provides the vehicle that we use to span the distance between ourselves and God. Praying transforms us and brings our will (desires) into align with God’s will (desires) for us. When we pray our deepest desires, we are opening our desires and ourselves up to God. God honors our opening of ourselves with the slow steady process of transforming us and our desires and preparing us to receive our transformed desire. The time lag between our initial awareness of the desire and its fulfillment is the time of personal transformation required on our part required to enable … [Read more...]