{"id":2604,"date":"2023-09-12T14:19:46","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T19:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/?p=2604"},"modified":"2023-09-12T14:39:18","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T19:39:18","slug":"living-into-the-called-life-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/2023\/09\/living-into-the-called-life-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Living into the Called Life – Today!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Rev. Dr. Charlene Rachuy Cox<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhat are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?\u201d<\/span> So asks Mary Oliver in her poem, \u201cSummer Day.\u201d All of us can probably think of times and circumstances when we have been asked a version of that same question. \u201cWhat do you want to be when you grow up?\u201d Or, \u201cWhat are you going to do with your life?\u201d Or, \u201cWhat 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 \u2026 you fill in the blank?\u201d <\/span>What are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

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. \u201cWhen I grow up, <\/span>then <\/span>I will be\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhen there is enough money in the bank, or enough time on the calendar, <\/span>then<\/span> this, that, or the other thing \u2026\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhen this is finished, and that is accomplished and all of the proper pieces are in place, <\/span>then <\/span>we will be who we are created and called to be. <\/span>Then<\/span> we will be doing what we are created and called to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

We often take this same forward looking and forward thinking, someday, sometime, somehow approach to our lives of ministry within our Christian communities. \u201cWhen we pay off the mortgage on the building, <\/span>then <\/span>we can really do ministry.\u201d<\/span> \u201cWhen we get a new pastor, or youth minister, or choir director, <\/span>then<\/span> we will be able to develop the ministries we want<\/span>.<\/span>\u201d When this conflict is resolved or that problem is solved, <\/span>then<\/span> we can better serve our neighbors.\u201d \u201cWhen we have a shared ministry relationship in place with other area congregations, <\/span>then<\/span> we will have more resources so that we can do more ministry.<\/span>\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>And on, and on it goes \u2013 waiting for someday, sometime, somehow.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the height of the pandemic, we collectively held our breath and held onto a back-to-future longing and hope: \u201cWhen the pandemic is over, <\/span>then\u2026\u201d<\/span> \u201cWhen we get back into the building, then\u2026\u201d \u201cAnd 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, <\/span>what do we do now, in this moment, today?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/span>always<\/span> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pursuing and embracing present-tense responses to <\/span>what do we do now, in this moment, today<\/span> is precisely what living into the called life is all about. It is about being who you are created and called to be <\/span>\u00ad\u00ad\u2013 today,\u00ad <\/span>and doing what you are created and called to do \u2013 <\/span>today,<\/span> in the everyday living of our lives as we are the Body of Christ in the world. After all, God \u2013 the Creator of the universe \u2013 says to you, \u201cDo 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\u2026for you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.\u201d<\/span> \u00a0 <\/span>What an extraordinary and holy call!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To help you reflect upon and embrace this holy call, the Nourishing Vocation Project has created <\/span>52 \u201cNear and Now\u201d Integrative studies<\/span><\/a>, under 13 different themes that explore various aspects of <\/span>Living into the Called Life – Today! <\/span>Follow the link, and scroll down to \u201cPart 2 – Living into the Called Life – Today!\u201d Open the \u201cNear and Now\u201d 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.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div> \n\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rev. Dr. Charlene Rachuy Cox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10038,"featured_media":2471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/files\/2023\/09\/kalen-emsley-uQ6ocPD59nU-unsplash.jpg?fit=1029%2C686&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10038"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2604"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2617,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2604\/revisions\/2617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}