earth
August 22nd, 2005 by Andy
And finally… earth. Earth is our metaphor for creativity. This one is fairly straight forward, but it needs to be said because we often don’t. Often we christians spend most of our time talking about elimination of sin and almost no time releasing God-given potential. Certainly rooting out and eliminating sin is an important part of following Jesus, but is not even nearly the whole story.
Look around you. Go ahead, I’ll wait, find a window or better yet step outside and take a look around you. Alright, now that your back, can it be denied that our God is a creative God? And we are created in the image of this creative God! God breathed into a lump of earth and created humanity. Of course as a result of our own rebellion, we are broken vessels. Too often we make the goal of holiness to somehow get back to an ‘unbroken’ state, which we can’t do. So what is the point of character transformation (wood) then? Well, I think the point is that God has big dreams for you and I. We can’t ‘unbreak’ ourselves, so that we must leave to God, and move on.
There was a time when what people did with their lives was carefully considered as a calling from above. In fact, the very word ‘vocation’ includes this notion. ‘Vocation’ comes to us via the latin ‘vocatio’ which is rooted in ‘vocare’ which means ‘to call’. Ones vocation was once thought to be a ‘calling’. God has a dream for his people and it’s wrapped up in this understanding of ‘call’. God has uniquely gifted and equipped each of us for our call. Maybe it’s time to reclaim this understanding of our vocation as more than just a way to pay the bills?
There are many forms of creativity. To be a good accountant or financial planner takes creativity, right? Think about what it takes to be good at any given vocation. To be good doctors, lawyers, carpenters, barristas, cab drivers all takes creativity. You see, God has redeemed us for a purpose. God has a dream for us and it’s not just to ‘unbreak’ us. Creativity is the natural result of being formed by and following after a creative God. Together, we are committed to seeing and celebrating the God-given potential in every life. We are committed to embracing and releasing creativity in every form.
Jesus told a story about how our hearts are like earth. In the story the message of the Kingdom of God falls on different kinds of soil. When our hearts are like good soil (when we truly accept God’s message) there is a huge harvest. In other words, when we let God cultivate our hearts into good earth, the potential that lies dormant in each of our hearts is released and the dreams that God has for us come to life. So, I have a question or two for you. In what way has God gifted and ‘called’ you to a great harvest in the Kingdom? Have you ever thought about it before? How can we help each other to see and embrace our ‘call’?
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The soil in my life has not always been receptive to any kind of seed that may have been planted by God. However, the last 5 years have been a bonus crop of sorts, and this has brought a new understanding of what gifts and talents God has put into my life. Now I can see how my voracious appetite for books has allowed me in a short time to be able to understand and defend the logic and reason behind Christianity. For me there is nothing better than to see the spark in someone’s eye when they ‘get’ it for the first time after helping them work through a particular problem. Though I might have missed this gift if it wasn’t for some perceptive people in my life who pointed out how ‘alive’ I became when discussing apologetic and theological issues. As a community we definately have to be willing to point out to people “Hey, you’re really good at that…” or “Did you ever notice that when you do __ you seem to be doing what God created you to do” I think I like the quote from Eric Liddle when he says “When I run I feel God’s pleasure.” When we do what we have been created to do (whether that be running, writing, etc.) we begin to tap into that creativity that God has planted into us that comes out in a form of worship. I’d certainly like to see more of that…
Comment by Michael — August 22, 2005 @ 2:32 pm
I wonder if God has created me to become the next great Texas Hold ‘Em Poker player…
Comment by Michael — August 22, 2005 @ 2:33 pm
Michael — I am so with you on the Texas Hold Em’ thing. I watched the World Series of Poker the other night. It’s slightly addicting, I must confess. Bethany and I are even considering buying a poker table….ok, so maybe she has no desire to do so, but…
Anywho…onto more important topics. One thing that has really intrigued me over the last few years is how reluctant people are to believe this value (that they have God-given creativity that God is ready to unleash). I have met and talked with so many folks that can accept that this might be true about other people, but when it comes to their lives — they can’t see it. Why is that? Why do we hesitate and struggle to believe that God has a dream for us that we would be co-creators? I have some guesses, but I would love to hear what other people think.
Comment by Chris — August 23, 2005 @ 8:29 pm
Don’t feel bad Chris, Nikki and I sat on the couch last night watching the World Series of Poker as well, I’ve never seen her get so excited. sniffs the air Do you smell that…I think a poker night may be coming in the near future =)
I think the ’simple’ answer to the question may be that we’ve never really been told this in our regular lives. Sure you hear it at church, but once you leave the building you’re being told you’re like everyone else, that there is nothing special about who you are. And if we’re honest we know that most people leave their faith at the church doors, it doesn’t seep into the rest of their lives. So if you’re told you’re not a co-creator with God in your everyday life, and don’t know what your gifts may be, and have never been shown how to use them to help bring in a huge crop, you’ll just be standing there with your hands in your pockets looking like you lost your best friend.
I think this is why I enjoy reading through Genesis as much as I do (besides being a dork
is that I see God giving this enormous honor to Adam to rule along side of God. And from what I can tell, this blessing and covenant is never taken away from humanity! We are still asked to rule along side God, and are gifted to do so…but once again alot of people I’ve met have never heard this and don’t understand even when explained.
Ok I’ve babbled on enough, someone else post!
Comment by Michael — August 24, 2005 @ 12:23 pm
Okay, after Andy’s constant email badgering
I figure it’s high time I start to contribute to this blog!
I have to admit, guys, that watching poker played on TV sounds about as interesting to me as watching grass grow. Am I missing something there? Oh well, I doubt the World Series of Poker is showing on the four channels my rabbit ear antenna receives anyway…
On to the topic at hand. My opinion is that the number one reason people fail to reach their God-given potential is fear. We’re afraid to leave our comfort zones. We may not even like our comfort zone, but at least it’s ours, it’s known, and it takes little effort to stay there.
I appreciate Andy’s thoughts about vocation and calling. I think that perhaps we in the church have spent a little too much time and energy trying to get people to buy into the fact that they are gifted for ministry in the church and not enough time helping them to understand their everyday work as a calling. Maybe this is because it is just more difficult to comprehend the spiritual aspects of work. Some might wonder how carpentry, accounting, or waitressing can be a calling. It’s far easier for the church to say to someone, “Hey, you may spend 40 hours a week delivering the mail, but since you love hanging out with kids we’re going to make you a youth group leader, and that’s your ministry.”
Comment by Bret — August 24, 2005 @ 2:17 pm
right, now we’re getting somewhere. I think that Michael’s on to something about folks leaving there faith at the door when they leave the church building. And, I think this has a lot to do with what Bret brought up about only labeling what we do inside the walls of the church building ministry.
This is why I keep coming back around to the ‘blessed to be a blessing’ thing. The Kingdom is focused on the good of the world, not just those that are already in the church. How can we be focused on the good of the world, if we only call what goes on our own buildings ministry. Shouldn’t the majority of ministry be happening outside of our buildings? Shouldn’t our worship be just a gathering point that prepares us to live our lives ‘for the sake of the world’?
I do have one other question though. Has free market capitalism and consumerism driven many of us to work in dehumanizing environments? Do we ever say to people who spend there whole life in a cube farm, “you know what, there’s just something not right about this”? Was anyone really created to be a telemarketer? hhmmmmm…..
Comment by Andy — August 24, 2005 @ 10:43 pm
Amen to that, Andy! Come to think of it, the cube farm I work in isn’t a whole lot different than cattle pens. Whoever thought that having workers spend a whole day sitting in isolation would be good for worker productivity was seriously midguided. And I’m something of an introvert!
I’m more likely to IM someone sitting just a few feet away from me than I am to walk over to talk with them. I fear for the interpersonal skills of the generation coming up that is learning to communicate only via the Net.
As for the cause of all this, I wouldn’t necessarily put it on the free market and consumerism. Mostly I think it is just bad ideas for technology use, or good ideas used poorly.
Comment by Bret — August 25, 2005 @ 10:45 am
This is awesome stuff that I agree whole heartedly with. I feel my calling is to help others realize their calling. But I have a friend who can’t figure hers out, I try to help but still together we can’t get at what her passion is. I know for a fact that she is praying and trying to listen to God, but still she is very frustrated that she doesn’t know where she “fits” in. I know that prayer and patience is SO important because God doesn’t always work with in our time frames, but am I missing something, is there something else that we can do to figure this out?
Comment by Ben — August 30, 2005 @ 12:32 pm
Tell your friend that having to wait is a good thing, and it could simply be that during all of this that God is preparing her for her calling. He may not be able to simply plop her down into a ministry if she hasn’t been trained properly. Just as we would never think of trying to climb Mount Everest without the proper tools and exercise, we can’t always jump into ministry without allowing God to prepare us for that particular role. That’s just my two cents.
Comment by Michael — August 30, 2005 @ 2:38 pm
Alright, as one of the “pastors’ wives” I will be the first one to put out a blog that is neither wise nor insightful. I can’t be the only one who has avoided commenting so far for fear that anything they have to say will not be profound, or just a plain old fear that you have nothing to say. My usual fear is that I don’t have anything to say that hasn’t already been said. Or maybe there are people following these blogs who have no experience with church at all and don’t even understand what’s being talked about half the time because they are not familiar with some of the terms being used or the metaphors being discussed. I’d like to open it up to you to ask as many “stupid questions” as you need to. In a new community of loving people like this, I’m confident no one will think you stupid.
Now as for my few thoughts on God-given callings, passions, talents, ect… I remember taking a test to find out my callings and passions a long time ago, and I thought that was it, and I was set for life as a Server, Singer, and Hostess, but I now have come to the realization that these things change and grow as we change and grow and enter different stages of our lives. And I’m excited to dig up an old passion or dream I used to have of inviting over neighbors, their friends, people off the street… And have them all over for a big dinner where people enjoy good food and meaningful conversation and lives are changed forever! Now we just need to get to the neighborhood!
Comment by Gina — August 30, 2005 @ 9:22 pm
Ben, I have heard others suggest that sometimes we discern our call kinda along the way as we try what interests us. I think there is wisdom in this. After all, we are not at all used to thinking like this (about vocation and call). It’s not like we have been encouraged to think this way growing up. Most of us were encouraged to think about what will make us money or provide the most desirable benefits to us. I was certainly never encouraged to think of my ‘vocation’ as something I was created to do. So, I think that perhaps some of us need to try things out then reflect and bounce it off people that know us best. In the end I don’t think everyone experiences a Martin Luther type of call. Some of us will slowly grow into our call by following our hearts and trusting the spirit to guide. My call to be a pastor was certainly not the lightening bolt of Luther, but more of an exploring everything else in ministry first then finally admitting what I had refused to admit (being the son of a preacher man and all). So here I am… it took a while (just ask Chris why we graduated H.S. together but not seminary)
Comment by Andy — August 30, 2005 @ 9:55 pm