“What are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?” So asks Mary Oliver in her poem, “Summer Day.” All of us can probably think of times and circumstances when we have been asked a version of that same question. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Or, “What are you going to do with your life?” Or, “What are your plans for after high school, or after college, or after military service, or after your kids are on their own, or after retirement, or after … you fill in the blank?” What are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?

Most often our responses to those questions are forward looking and forward thinking. We imagine a someday, sometime, somehow when some imagined or hoped-for dream or possibility will be realized. “When I grow up, then I will be….”  “When there is enough money in the bank, or enough time on the calendar, then this, that, or the other thing …”  “When this is finished, and that is accomplished and all of the proper pieces are in place, then we will be who we are created and called to be. Then we will be doing what we are created and called to do.

We often take this same forward looking and forward thinking, someday, sometime, somehow approach to our lives of ministry within our Christian communities. “When we pay off the mortgage on the building, then we can really do ministry.” “When we get a new pastor, or youth minister, or choir director, then we will be able to develop the ministries we want.” When this conflict is resolved or that problem is solved, then we can better serve our neighbors.” “When we have a shared ministry relationship in place with other area congregations, then we will have more resources so that we can do more ministry.”  And on, and on it goes – waiting for someday, sometime, somehow.

During the height of the pandemic, we collectively held our breath and held onto a back-to-future longing and hope: “When the pandemic is over, then…” “When we get back into the building, then…” “And now across the church, there is a collective, anxious-what-if-the-past-is-gone-for-good-and-the-church-is-forever-changed-kind-of-yearning that thrusts us into the present-tense and compels us to ask, what do we do now, in this moment, today?”

And what a gift that question is! What transformative possibilities that question opens up! What holy and life-giving ways of being and doing this question invites – ways of being and doing that have always marked our lives as the people of God, but ways of being and doing that perhaps have slipped through our fingers and faded from our sight.

Pursuing and embracing present-tense responses to what do we do now, in this moment, today is precisely what living into the called life is all about. It is about being who you are created and called to be ­­– today,­ and doing what you are created and called to do – today, in the everyday living of our lives as we are the Body of Christ in the world. After all, God – the Creator of the universe – says to you, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you…for you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.”   What an extraordinary and holy call!

To help you reflect upon and embrace this holy call, the Nourishing Vocation Project has created 52 “Near and Now” Integrative studies, under 13 different themes that explore various aspects of Living into the Called Life – Today! Follow the link, and scroll down to “Part 2 – Living into the Called Life – Today!” Open the “Near and Now” tabs, and you will find four studies on each theme. Each study is centered around a different Biblical character living into different experiences of the called life.