The Heritage Work 2017 Spring Update
Vocation in Place
I am learning that vocation is not my job or my paycheck, but my orientation to letting God and what is life-giving in me flow through me in each place I go. It is to be available, present and undivided in all places, and to the next person I meet. It is to be awake and aware that spiritual place-settings abound.
Place-settings are local. They are made first in our homes and among neighbors and co-workers. As of friend of mine has said, "if it doesn't work at home, don't take it on the road". Sarah and I love inviting people we don't know very well — perhaps especially little known but recently come into our mind's eye — over for "dinners for six". Six seems a good number so as to allow engagement in one conversation at a time. The table has become a sacred place of story-telling, laughter and listening.
Place-settings are local AND eternal. They preceded us and are our destination.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... and the Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. —John 1:1, 14 (the Message)
In My Father's house are many dwelling places...for I go to prepare a place for you. —John 14:2
Place-settings are intentional. I meet regularly with groups of men less than 8, preferably 1-5 in my home or theirs. These meeting places engender honesty, true friendship and less mask-wearing and anonymity.
Place-settings are internal. We find also that God did not merely place Himself in human history in Jesus, but seeks to take up residence, making man a dwelling place, by His Spirit, for which we were made.
...the mystery, which has been hidden from the past ages and generations...which is Christ IN YOU, the hope of glory.
Paul, Colossians 1: 26, 27
... so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Ephesians 3:17
Place-settings can be interruptions. True hospitality is learning to welcome strangers at times into our lives. Jesus washed feet, hugged lepers, and called tax collectors down out of trees. Despite the strain on his schedule and the personal risk of his reputation and his position, people came first. When a blind man, a beggar or a lonely woman called out to Jesus, he didn't reschedule them or avoid them because it wasn't in his plans that day. He asked the Father for discernment for sure and I'm sure passed people by as well. But we have much to learn about our vocation being not in the things we schedule as much as in the interruptions to those schedules.
And, place-settings are interesting! My son Gavin graduated in May from a wonderful place that fit him: Azusa Pacific University. The rest are some of my favorite places to meet people or be alone trying to hear from God amidst a noisy world. We need to find places for re-creation and rest.
I find a compelling vocational 'job description' from Parker Palmer. In A Hidden Wholeness, he borrows his title from Thomas Merton (And I love the 2 subtitles: the journey of an undivided life; welcoming the soul and weaving community in a wounded world) and states his main idea:
This book is about tying a rope from the back door out to the barn so that we can find our way home again. When we catch sight of the soul, we can survive the blizzard without losing our hope or our way. When we catch sight of the soul, we can become healers in a wounded world-- in a family, in the neighborhood, in the workplace, and in political life-- as we are called back to our “hidden wholeness” amid the violence of the storm.
Does this perhaps speak to your vocation?
