Free To Live Out Our “Call” – More on "The Centered Life"

Yesterday I again attended our adult Sunday School class on The Centered Life. The concept is gaining clarity and meaning for me.

With God as our center, as Christians we are freed from the need to earn our salvation or justify our existence on earth. The Lutheran tradition suggests that through God’s grace we are freed to live and serve our neighbor.

A 1993 ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) statement on “vocation” maintains that God calls all Christians to a life of vocation. Vocation in this context means “living out one’s call.”

Lutheran thought conceptualizes “vocation” or “the Christian call” as transpiring in FOUR domains: our workplace, our home, our community and our congregation. We spent a lot of the time yesterday massaging the first – the workplace.

Jack Fortin, author of the book of the same title as our class, defines “workplace” as “wherever we spend a significant portion of our time, engaged in activity (whether compensated or not) that produces goods and services, that makes use of our God-given talents and that provides us an opportunity to serve God’s purposes in the world.” Wow. That even includes us retired folks!

Fortin then explains that God calls us in individual ways that often fit our own unique personalities and situations. However, God’s call can take many forms.

Peter the fisherman was called in a whole new direction as a disciple and subsequent apostle. Zacchaeus, on the other hand, was called to live differently in his same occupation. Frederick Buechner thinks our calling lies in “that place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need”.

How, then, should we discern and live out our own call?

That is my ponderance for this week. Lord, give me sensitivity, understanding and the freedom to live it out.