purpose

Today’s Word: Vocation

Steve · August 24, 2013 · 4 Comments

Historic schoolhouse, West Branch, Iowa. SJG photo.

“Vocation is where our greatest passion meets the world’s greatest need.”
– Frederick Buechner

The word vocation has, unfortunately, become all too familiar. We use it synonymously to mean, “what we do for a living.” And while that might be true, it only tells part of the story. The word comes from the Latin meaning “call” or “summons.” Thus, our vocations are not just what we do but what we are summoned to do. Summoned by whom? That’s up to the listener.

As people of faith, we hold to the idea that this call comes from God and reflects God’s desire and will for our lives. It is one of our great responsibilities to prayerfully discern our call and then respond. Importantly, it’s good to remember that we are perhaps called to different things at different times over the course of our lives. What we are called to in later life may be quite different from the call we responded to (or didn’t respond to…) when we were much younger.

Like any call, the answer to our vocation question can be found by listening. We need to listen to ourselves and trust our hearts. We need to listen to those who know us best. And we need to listen to that still, small voice that whispers (and hardly ever shouts): “Follow me, I’ve got something for you to do.”

Ask yourself in silence: To what are you sensing a call? Has there been a call you ignored because it seemed inconvenient? Do you have a passion that meets a great need in the world?

Today’s Word: Trace

Steve · August 20, 2013 · 4 Comments

Walking along the dried Mississippi River bed, I came across the deer tracks pictured to the right. Looking behind me, I saw that I was leaving some tracks of my own in the wet mud. And in a moment of insight, I realized that we all leave a mark wherever we go, some sign that we are here, good or bad, if even for a brief moment. The question is: what kind of trace do we leave behind?

We all leave lots of surface impressions on the world. Often, as the saying goes, we only get one chance to make a best first impression. In spiritual terms, someone once said that we may be the only Christ the people around us meet on any given day, so we need to be constantly aware that we have that power and responsibility. We most effectively model Christ and divine love to the world not with Christian t-shirts and noisy preaching but rather by making a quiet impression of love on those around us. For it’s most often the gentle touch and the caring word that leaves the deepest mark.

Ask yourself in silence: What do I leave behind? Can the people around me tell that God dwells in me?

Today’s Word: Fruit

Steve · August 15, 2013 · 5 Comments

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I love your Christ but not your Christians, because they are so unlike Christ.” All too often, this is so true. I’m not calling out any individuals here, and I’m not pointing fingers. We’ve all fallen short at one time or another. We’ve all failed to show those around us just what it is that this Christ means to us. Maybe we got the words right — or think we have them right — but we fall short on the way we live out the words. We’re missing the fruit of our faith.

If the Christ we see and learn from in the gospels is to be seen and known through us, it will be through the fruits of the spirit working in us. These fruits are not correctness, judgment, self-righteousness, or orthodoxy. These fruits are not liberalism or conservatism, and they are not the property of any one religion, creed or nation. The fruits of God’s spirit are found in the small deeds and actions that govern our lives and in the ways we love our families, our friends and even our enemies. They are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22). These fruits speak for themselves, and no one will ever fail to find Christ in us if we nurture these fruits in our lives while pruning back the vices and sins that separate us from God and from those around us.

Ask yourself in silence: When have others failed to see the fruits of the spirit in my life? Do I nurture these fruits or have I let them wither on the vine?

I’ll be taking a break for a few days as I head out tomorrow for a few days of solitude at the Vision of Peace Hermitages in Pevely, Missouri, nestled on the banks of the Mississippi River just south of St. Louis. I’ll be back on Monday with some new words and plenty of new photographs.

Today’s Word: Alive

Steve · August 13, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Detail of America Windows, stained glass by Marc Chagall, the Art Institute of Chicago. SJG photo

The second-century Christian writer Irenaeus once wrote: “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” What a contemporary sounding idea! God is most happy — is in his glory — when we are fully alive. So what does it mean to be fully alive? This thought reminds me of that great question in Psalm 8 (and I paraphrase): Who are we that God pays any attention to us at all?

Irenaeus has a comeback for the Psalmist: I’ll tell you who we are…we are his GLORY — as long as we’ve living lives of abundance, as long as we’re living lives that complete God’s purpose and hope for us. To be fully alive is to live fully in God, for God, of God. It is to seek God with every fiber of our being and in every moment of our lives. Or as a much more contemporary source (songwriter David Crowder) writes: “You make everything glorious. And I am yours. What does that make me?”

Ask yourself in silence: What am I doing when I feel I am most fully alive?

Today’s Word: Consciousness

Steve · August 12, 2013 · 4 Comments

Self portrait in shadow and brown grass. SJG photo

They’re the tiniest of errors
He made them every day.
Ignore them, they’re forgotten
But, never really go away.

– John Caravelli, The Tiniest of Errors

Have you ever driven somewhere and, upon arrival, realize that you remember virtually nothing of the trip? Here’s a better question: Have you ever come to the end of a year and wondered where it all went and what you did with it? Been there, wondered that…

This is one of the greatest challenges of our busy lives. All too often, we’re leading Socrates’ “unexamined life,” which, as we all know, is “not worth living.” Our days, weeks, months and years rush by in a flash of seasons, holidays and anniversaries, and we find ourselves a year older and with not much else to show for it. That’s why most philosophers, poets and theologians can all agree on at least one thing: Stop and smell the roses. Or the coffee. Or the strawberries. Or whatever it is that will slow you down a bit and help you appreciate what’s going on around you.

St. Ignatius suggests an “examination of consciousness” at the end of each day. This is not just a recounting of our sins and failings (although they may creep in…) but rather a prayerful recollection of the myriad ways that God has touched our lives. “Ignore them, they’re forgotten,” as my friend John writes in his song. But when we take the time to remember them, we are blessed and made all the more aware of the countless ways that God insinuates himself into our lives everyday.

Ask yourself in silence: How did God enter my life today? What people, experiences and moments (now in hindsight) spoke to me of God? And perhaps most importantly, how can I be more aware tomorrow?