In Search of Wisdom

Chelsey wrote this in her comment on “Tattoos on the Soul”:

Most of the time, “tattoos” (both in the real, ink on the body, and in the experiential, things that have marked me in life, sense) are extremely personal; but their messages are extremely public. How do we balance these two extremes that seem to represent so many aspects of the ministry?

I’ve heard several variations on the theme of this question. Often, people are concerned about the pressure that comes with the calling to ministry. When you live a life of ministry, you lead. When you lead, people look at you. When people look at you, they critique and measure. They call it like they see it – inflating your head with praise or popping your spirit with criticism.

In a sermon that she delivered to young people contemplating their calling to ministry, Barbara Brown Taylor shared a conversation that she’d had with a respected pastor and professor:

One day I told him that my biggest fear about ordination was the perfection thing—impersonating Jesus in front of a whole lot of people who would see right through me—and he said, “Oh lovey, that’s not your job. If you decide to do this, then you’re not promising to be perfect. You’re just consenting to be visible—to let other people watch you while you try to figure out what real life is all about.”

“On This Rock” in Awakened to a Calling: Reflections on the Vocation of Ministry. Nashville: Abingdon. 2005, pp. 55-56.

This is the reality. The public eye is a part of ministry. If you are sensing a call to ministry – or are acting on this call, ask yourself, are you attracted to this spotlight? Are you afraid of it? Is there a clash between your private and public selves? Are you ready to submit your life to Christ and to lead others in this submission?

What are your thoughts on this call to the public life? What is the place of the private self in ministry? I’m eager to hear your thoughts… your wisdom.

Tags: Books, Call to Ministry by Heidi
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“I am God’s Project.” This was the title of one of my siblings and my favorite cassette tapes when I was a little . We referred to it lovingly as ‘the yellow tape.’ My mom told me that she just saw that tape out the other day in my dad’s study! One of our favorite songs on the tape was Bloom Where You’re Planted. My sister and I even sang the song in church for ‘special music’ one Sunday. The words have become so much a part of me that, 20 years later, they were readily available at the hospital bedside of a woman I ministered to as a student chaplain a few summers ago. I still remember the words now:

Bloom where you’re planted;
Show what you’re worth.
God has his flowers all over the earth.
Bloom where you’re planted and if you’re sincere,
You can get anywhere on earth from here.

Bloom where you’re planted
And become a part
Of God’s lovely garden – the pride of his heart.
Bloom where you’re planted and if you’re sincere,
You can get anywhere on earth from here.

Bloom where you’re planted. What does this mean?

I’ve been meeting with a woman in her early fifties. She is sensing that God might be calling her to seminary. She’s had conversations with a few people and some have encouraged her to ‘bloom where she’s planted.’

She thought she’d come to some peace about staying right where she’s at – following God’s will in the little things of life and ministering quietly by writing prayer newsletters, mentoring a woman, and correcting Bible lessons for a prison ministry.

But then, one evening, she read Romans 10 as a part of her daily devotional and her eye fell on these verses:

“‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

She can’t shake her sense that God is calling her to preach. And so she continues to wonder. Is God calling her to stay in one garden, or to move to another?

What are your thoughts about blooming where one is planted? Your questions? Your experiences?

Tags: Advice, Someone's Story by Heidi
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Welcome to the very first post on a brand-new blog. My name is Heidi De Jonge and I am the pastor for discernment at Calvin Theological Seminary. I’ve started this blog in order to facilitate a conversation for all of us who are in the midst of discerning God’s leading in our lives. I will be posting regularly: posing questions, sharing resources, and searching for wisdom.

I invite you to plumb the depths with me – to ask questions of each other and to share your thoughts and your experiences.

I begin with a quote that I heard on Talk of the Nation on NPR yesterday afternoon…

Paul Roe, a tattoo artist in Washington DC, smoothly defended his trade by saying that “irreversible decisions are good for the soul.”

Irreversible decisions are good for the soul.

I suppose he meant that it is good for a person to take a risk – to cross a line which, once crossed, cannot be uncrossed. Getting a tattoo marks your body, and perhaps your soul, in a defining and irreversible way.

And I began to wonder. What other kinds of decisions are irreversible? Suicide, crossing the Rubicon…

But what kinds of decisions are reversible? Don’t all decisions, like tattoos on the body, leave marks on our souls?

What are your thoughts? Your questions? Your experiences?

Tags: Decisions by Heidi
11 Comments »