Uncategorized

That feeling when you realize you’ve been using a word incorrectly your entire life

Last week I spent quite a bit of time pondering, what drives people to get involved, in varying degrees, with certain social or political causes.  Over the weekend, I got a little bit closer to that answer.

On Sunday, we hosted an impromptu lunch with a couple from church. The community of Christians here is pretty close, especially among the mission-minded expats. A request for a ride home turned into a great afternoon of food, laughs and enlightenment. The soon to be family of 3 (baby in the oven) joined us for a delicious Brazilian meal that I had little (nothing) to do with.  My sole contribution was socializing.  The husband, after hearing of my interest in reading, recommended a few books. As I’d already read and enjoyed one of them, I knew his taste would suit mine.  I didn’t even wait for him to finish praising the books before I’d ordered them for my Kindle.

That Sunday, I started with “The Gift of Being Yourself” by author David Benner. By Monday, I was completely drawn in. I didn’t realize until about halfway through the book that it’s subtitled “The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery.”  God knows I’m oddly anti “finding myself” and I pretty much loathe the entire genre of “pop psychology self-help” books. Maybe later I’ll need to explore why. But for now, God, knowing that I’d scoff at it had I known the full title, allowed Kindle engineers to start books directly in the prologue.

I’ll save my drawn out review and skip to the part directly relevant to my earlier question.  First, I have to admit, I’ve been using the word vocation incorrectly my entire life. I always thought this word was interchangeable with job, career or occupation.  Turns out it’s a theologically rooted word that’s actually closer to a “calling.”

Benner quotes a couple of similarly minded authors before expounding in his own words.  He mentions Gordon Smith’s idea of vocation, “… much bigger than a career, job or occupation, our unique calling will be based on our gifts and abilities, will grow out of our deepest desires, and will always involve some response to the needs of the world.”  That line spoke powerfully to me. I could imagine my deepest desires meeting the needs of the world in the street and shaking hands. Or maybe bear hugging!  No wait, we shake hands then high-five. There’s no hug.

Benner then quotes Frederick Buechner who says, “…the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Again this hit me powerfully. Is it possible that my deep gladness could meet the world’s deep hunger? The world has so many deep hungers, and humanity is hugely diverse when it comes to things that bring us deep and lasting gladness. And this all sounds like a very good thing to me. It sounds like, even the most niche cause or calling serves to meet some deep need of the world.

Benner describes, very nicely, what drives our vocation and the resulting effects of taking it fully on.

“Our vocation is always a response to a Divine call to take our place the kingdom of God. Our vocation is a call to serve God and our fellow humans in a distinctive way that fits the shape of our being. In one way or another, Christian calling will always involve the care of God’s creation and people.  This realigns us to the created world and to our neighbor, moving us from self-centered exploitation to self-sacrificing service and stewardship.”

After reading this, I see Paul’s various charges regarding our work in a refreshing manner. He says in his letter to the church in Ephesus, “Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” (Ephesians 6:7) He shares this same idea with the Colossians saying, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” (Colossians 3:2) This no longer sounds to me like a call to enjoy slavery.

When we discover our vocation, our Divine calling, we are working for the Lord.  When our gifts and desires are being used for Divine purpose, we can be beyond honored serving God; we can be deeply glad.  We don’t all need to be missionaries, working for Greenpeace, or [insert your favorite social cause NPO].  I never thought that anyway.  But it’s good to find confirmation that my gifts, skills, deepest desires and gladness have a Divine appointment with the world’s deep hunger; fitting perfectly into God’s will.  

I’ve found David Benner’s “The Gift of Being Yourself” a timely discovery. This note touches but a part, the part I found interestingly relevant to my recent ponderings; however, the book in its entirety is worth checking out.

Getting back to the original question and why I feel I’m a bit closer to an answer; it seems our vocation, and even hints or clues to our vocation are at least one piece of the puzzle.

As I’m out here on my mission, it’s interesting for me to consider why I’m actively battling human trafficking, instead of tying myself to a giant redwood tree to protect it. I 100% agree that we should not chop down the giant redwoods, but I’m not strapped to one – why?

What is it that makes us feel connected enough to a cause to actively support it?

Sometimes I’m moved by another person’s passion; someone I feel strongly connected to. A cause spearheaded by a loved one would have to be extremely ridiculous for me not to support it. For example, if my brother created a petition to start a fart symphony, that would indeed fall under the category of too ridiculous to support.

Then there are some causes I feel loosely connected to that I passively support. You know Tili? He’s the massive Sea World orca AKA killer whale responsible for the death of that killed a trainer. After watching Blackfish, a documentary that tells us Tili’s story of how a cruel environment of captivity caused him to snap, I was moved. How moved? I shared the story with a couple of other cruelty-loathing friends, we discussed the horrific nature of park captivity for a few days, and that was it. Not very moved, huh?

Whereas there were some people who started petitions, made public vows to never enter Sea World again and urged others to do the same, I did none of that. Why didn’t I have that same reaction? Why haven’t I shown that same sense of urgency to permanently shut the doors to Sea World, forever setting captive Orcas free? 

Why didn’t the Blackfish story flip my “activate” switch? 

Ultimately, it seems that some causes are niche causes that appeal specifically to certain people. On the other hand, some causes have a more universal appeal. The difficulty arises understanding the spectrum between niche and universal and further understanding what moves us individually from passive appeal to full blown activation. The fact remains that, niche or universal, simply agreeing with a statement or cause is not always enough to garner our active support.

Thus, as I think about some the causes that I am moved to actively support, I’m left to wonder why I flipped active when others didn’t.

For example, I believe that grave injustice to fellow human beings should be seen as a universal battle that we should actively, collectively fight. We can always split hairs on what counts as “injustice” but frankly I’m baffled that everyone isn’t going incensed that in 2014, women, children and men are being SOLD as property into real life slavery. I’m not talking about people working 20 hours a day in a sweatshop for unlivable wages. That’s a horrible form of oppression as well. However, by slavery, I mean people working 20 hours a day, accumulating negative wages (debt), being beaten, tortured and otherwise prevented from escape. Why isn’t everyone activated and going gorilla gang wild about it? Not “bombs over brothels” wild, more like, what’s within my sphere of power; beyond saying -“gee it’s awful isn’t it?”

Why doesn’t unjust human suffering doesn’t touch push every human into full active support? I can somewhat understand why everyone isn’t throwing paint at fur coats. However, I can hardly understand why our common humanity is not enough for us to be outraged to the point of action at such brazen injustice and dehumanization of our fellow human beings.

So I ask myself, what’s missing? Is the same missing ingredient that keeps me from picketing Sea World? Are there people who are as strongly opposed to fur coats as I am to trafficking babies for sex? What are we ultimately driven by? 

Perhaps there’s no single answer, but enlightenment on the topic should prove essential to my current mission. I’m genuinely interested in learning – 

What is it that makes us feel connected enough to a cause to actively support it?

Not (yet) The Story You’ve been Waiting For

In January, I took a year long LOA from my “high falutin” job to do full time international missionary work. You know, in Africa and stuff.

Oh Boy…

You’re not one of those are you?

There’s more. It’s complicated. I’m really not a hippie.  I may be quixotic, but a hippie, I am not. No shade.

In fact, let’s just get this out of the way early –

I’ve been called impractical before. Honestly, I’ve been called quixotic. But in my (possibly flawed) thinking, since perceived practicality doesn’t always produce good quality of life, why cling mindlessly to it? Pack that away for later – quality of life. Even so, I don’t shirk at practically; I recognize its place in my world. In fact, I’ll be sharing some of the stupid things I’ve done – impractically. That’s right, big surprise, quixotism can lead to doing stupid things.  Luckily I’m not in the business of making poetic excuses for, well, my stupid things.  Freely comment, “I told you so” whenever you feel lead. It’s cool; we Quixote’s always find a little hope yet.

With that said, between Zambia in January and India now (is it already April? Whoa), a LOT has happened, much of it testing my little idealist mantra.

These are the headlines:

  • I’ve pretty much pushed my physical limits with disease over the previous 2 months.  February and March were not health amazing.

  • Thank God, I’m still on the mission, though not with the same group. That’s right, I broke camp.

  • My parting ways with the group is only loosely connected to aforementioned illnesses. There’s so much more to the story. No drama.

  • I’m currently partnered with an awesome church & ministry that is near and dear to my heart.  You’ll be hearing more about this RACE so soon.

The subsequent blogs may or may not go in that order to fill in the blanks; just look at those as coming themes.

While this may not be the full catch-up story you’ve been waiting on, bear with me, I promise it’s coming.  Or you can come back in a few weeks when the past finally converges with nowness.