This week is our second week of Kadesh (high school age leadership camp) and it has been really thought provoking. I hope to have time to sit down and write about the things we’ve discussed and insights I’ve learned from the leaders and kids. Today though I want to talk about an idea that was mentioned briefly this week, but that I feel many young people are struggling with.
What are you going to do when you grow up? What’s your major going to be? What’s my calling? These are questions that plaque the younth of America. My brother is 15 and already has planned where he wants to get his undergraduate and masters from because he is choosing a career path in high school because of the IB program. When did 15 year olds start making these kinds of decisions, because I don’t remember making them when I was 15. Our society is putting more and more pressure on kids to have everything “figured out”.
At ACU I have many friends who have graduated or are still in school and searching for their “calling”. There is so much pressure that if they don’t have it all planned out, if they don’t pick that perfect career today that they won’t be successful. We are all searching for God’s calling in our life and so I want to take a moment to talk about what this word “calling” means. Because of the pressures that society is putting on us I believe that we have blended together our definitions of calling and vocation. In its most basic form our vocation is what we do to pay the bills. You could be a teacher, an accountant, a coach, a janitor, a lawyer but that isn’t necessarily your calling. Our calling is what God is putting on our hearts to do. Donna Stone was speaking at Kadesh this week and she said, “I’ve been fulfilling my calling of working in youth ministry for 24 years, but my vocation, what I do to pay the bills is teach high school”. What a great way to put it.
In her book Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, Ruth Hailey Barton says “However, the biblical idea of calling is not easily dismissed. Its meaning is richly layered. In its simplest and most straightforward meaning, the verb to call refers to the capacity living creatures have to call out to one another, to stay connected, to communicate something of importance. Even at this most basic level the dynamic of calling is profound, because it reminds us that calling is first of all highly relational: it has to do with one being (God) reaching out and establishing connection with another (us). It is an interpersonal connection and communication that is initiated by God and thus demands our attention and our response even as a basic courtesy”.
Our calling is to be in relationship with one another. To spread the good news of Jesus no matter what we are doing. There is no need to stress or worry about fulfilling our calling by landing that great job; or going to the perfect graduate school, because those things are not what we are being called to do. They may help us achieve our own goals and create a better quality of life for ourselves and our families, but if we are truly searching for our calling then we should take time to understand that it is something happening in our lives this very moment. Our calling from God is not something that will only be revealed once we’ve landed that job or finished our graduate work, it is waiting for us right now and it does not depend on you having everything in life figured out. So to all my friends and peers I encourage you to take a moment and listen for the call in your life and to begin to pursue it no matter where you are, because to say yes to our calling “is living in the awareness that the most wonderful thing in the world is to be completely given over to a loving God”.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
How to change the world. Just add water...
Wouldn’t we all like to change the world? To make the world around us a better place? Adam and Eve ate fruit from the forbidden tree thinking it would change their world. Hitler sought to take over Europe because he wanted to change the world. Gandhi used his words to try and change the world. From the beginning of time there have been those who desired to change the world, myself and friends included. But how is this possible? I am not a general in the world’s most powerful army or a national figure that can address an audience of thousands at one time. This idea of changing the world seems so overwhelming. Yet, there is hope because to change the world you first must change one person’s world.
Sound too simplistic to you? Or maybe just naïve, you’re thinking, “He’s only 22. Wait till he sees what the ‘real’ world is like”. Well I want to propose a new style of leadership and a new way of living that could very well change the world. No, I won’t be the one doing the changing, at least not all of it, but together you’ll be surprised what we can do.
A few years ago I took an international relations class at ACU and we discussed a theory called the “Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin. The theory outlines a “situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently, and solely and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen”. Why is this so true even today when our available resources are far greater than at any point in history? Because we live in a society that supports and encourages narcissism and egotism, a society that tells you and I that everything is and should be about us.
Imagine the impact we could have if we decided that we would no longer buy into this idea and instead strove to serve those around us by putting their interests first. There would be no tragedy of the commons, and in its place would be a thriving community brought together by the work and lives they shared with one another. How would everyday simple tasks such as driving to work be different or more complex relationships such as marriage changed? Would our work be more enjoyable if it wasn’t always about beating out your coworkers and instead about serving one another for the good of the whole?
Some of you reading this may think I’ve gone a little crazy or become some sort of radical, “I mean is he supporting socialism or even worse national healthcare?” No I’m not. Others may say, “He’ll never make it through law school with an attitude like that! How will he ever live up to his potential?” I assure you I will do well in law school (don't worry mom!) and live up to my God given potential. How am I so sure of this? Because 2,000 years ago a carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth, came to earth and change it forever; and he didn’t come with a sword or a pen and podium. Jesus changed the world with a towel and a basin filled with water, and I believe we can too.
“When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.’”
--John 13:12-17
Sound too simplistic to you? Or maybe just naïve, you’re thinking, “He’s only 22. Wait till he sees what the ‘real’ world is like”. Well I want to propose a new style of leadership and a new way of living that could very well change the world. No, I won’t be the one doing the changing, at least not all of it, but together you’ll be surprised what we can do.
A few years ago I took an international relations class at ACU and we discussed a theory called the “Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin. The theory outlines a “situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently, and solely and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen”. Why is this so true even today when our available resources are far greater than at any point in history? Because we live in a society that supports and encourages narcissism and egotism, a society that tells you and I that everything is and should be about us.
Imagine the impact we could have if we decided that we would no longer buy into this idea and instead strove to serve those around us by putting their interests first. There would be no tragedy of the commons, and in its place would be a thriving community brought together by the work and lives they shared with one another. How would everyday simple tasks such as driving to work be different or more complex relationships such as marriage changed? Would our work be more enjoyable if it wasn’t always about beating out your coworkers and instead about serving one another for the good of the whole?
Some of you reading this may think I’ve gone a little crazy or become some sort of radical, “I mean is he supporting socialism or even worse national healthcare?” No I’m not. Others may say, “He’ll never make it through law school with an attitude like that! How will he ever live up to his potential?” I assure you I will do well in law school (don't worry mom!) and live up to my God given potential. How am I so sure of this? Because 2,000 years ago a carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth, came to earth and change it forever; and he didn’t come with a sword or a pen and podium. Jesus changed the world with a towel and a basin filled with water, and I believe we can too.
“When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.’”
--John 13:12-17
Monday, June 14, 2010
Where has the time gone?
My last post was August 9, 2006 and my question is, "Where has the time gone?". So much has happened in the past four years, my graduating college being just one example, that I am not going to try and recap. Instead I'll pick up my story where I am now. In the fall I will be attending law school at Baylor University and am excited about the opportunities that I have already been given there.
However, that is not where I am now. Right now I am spending the summer in Abilene working ACU Leadership Camps. The past 3 months have been spent training and praying for a summer filled with teaching middle and high school kids about servant leadership and their relationships with God. Last week was our first week of Kadesh (high schoolers) and it was a powerful experience. It is amazing the things you will learn when you take the time to sit down and talk about scripture and life with a high schooler. The theme for Kadesh this year is "Hope" and the kids that I was able to interact with certainly left me feeling hopeful about the future.
You see, we look at the world around us filled with oil spills; war in the Middle East; poverty; sex trafficking; and countless other atrocities and quickly lose hope. Yet in the hearts and minds of these teenagers I found a strength and determination that gives me hope for tomorrow. Take the time to have a conversation and I promise you will too.
"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe."
--Ephesians 1:18-19
However, that is not where I am now. Right now I am spending the summer in Abilene working ACU Leadership Camps. The past 3 months have been spent training and praying for a summer filled with teaching middle and high school kids about servant leadership and their relationships with God. Last week was our first week of Kadesh (high schoolers) and it was a powerful experience. It is amazing the things you will learn when you take the time to sit down and talk about scripture and life with a high schooler. The theme for Kadesh this year is "Hope" and the kids that I was able to interact with certainly left me feeling hopeful about the future.
You see, we look at the world around us filled with oil spills; war in the Middle East; poverty; sex trafficking; and countless other atrocities and quickly lose hope. Yet in the hearts and minds of these teenagers I found a strength and determination that gives me hope for tomorrow. Take the time to have a conversation and I promise you will too.
"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe."
--Ephesians 1:18-19
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