In Search of Wisdom

Have you ever done it? Have you ever flipped your Bible open to a random verse hoping that God might meet you in the flipping and the pointing and spill a word for your life?

Dallas Willard, in his book Hearing God comments on this practice of picking random verses. In this practice…

…we see both the desperate urgency and the superstitious character of human efforts to get a word from God, especially a word on what is going to happen and what we should do about it. If necessary some people are prepared to force such a word from him or someone else. Like King Saul many of us have our own versions of a witch of Endor. (p. 33)

I had an embarrassing experience several weeks ago in which I attempted to demonstrate the inappropriateness of Bible Roulette in a high school chapel. Right in the middle of the chapel, I randomly opened my Bible to a verse (Jeremiah 2:3) and read it out loud. Relatively unbeknownst to the 500 high schoolers, the verse was all too appropriate to the context in which I’d set it. I had been telling the students how the Spirit doesn’t speak. And the Spirit spoke. To me, if not to them. Through Bible Roulette.

I told this story to a colleague. After explaining Bible roulette, she said, “Some people have come to seminary using that method.”

So, what do you think? What do you think about Bible Roulette and Saul’s witch of Endor? What do you think about looking for signs and words from God in these ways? Was Gideon’s setting out of the fleece a better way of getting a word from God? Was his methodology simply descriptive, or prescriptive for our own discernment?

Tags: Books, Decisions by Heidi
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Sometimes our problem is that we’re looking for too many legs.

According to the mentor of one Calvin Seminary student, discovering God’s call on your life is like putting legs under a stool. A stool, he says, only needs three legs.

LEG #1: An internal sense of calling.

LEG #2: Affirmation of this calling through wise people who know you well.

LEG #3: Experiences that confirm this calling.

Once you’ve got three legs for your stool, all you need to do is sit on it. Don’t look for more legs, said the wise old pastor. You’ve got three. That’s enough.

Are you looking for more legs? Do you agree that three legs are enough? Is this advice too simple? Or is it just simple enough?

Tags: Advice, Call to Ministry, Mentors by Heidi
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“God doesn’t call the equipped; God equips the called.”

Can we reflect on this axiom together? From a quick perusal of blogs, it seems that this statement has been a source of great encouragement to a lot of people. There is a truth here – obviously. Scripture gives us two called-and-unequipped examples. Moses and Paul – both adverse to public speaking – were called through a bush and on a road and then equipped by God to be prophet and apostle.

I also believe that those of us who face our ministry or our vocation with an appropriate dose of fear or a sense of inadequacy are actually healthier than those who are convinced they’ve got it all together.

On the other hand, I think we can take this too far. This statement is sometimes used to filter out a much-needed assessment of one’s gifts and talents. One might say, “God is calling me to this task, so it doesn’t matter what my gifts are or what I like to do. It’s not about me.”

Friends, your vocation does happen to be about you. God designed you in such a way that your gifts and talents do matter. Who you are matters and discerning who you are is part of the vocational journey some of you are in the midst of.

Lee Hardy, Calvin College’s 2007 recipient of the Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching, says the following in his book on the theology of vocation, The Fabric of this World:

That I am who I am is not a result of chance, a mere cosmic accident. Rather it is the result of God’s intention. There is a reason why I am who I am, although that reason may not be immediately apparent to me. I was placed here for a purpose, and that purpose is one which I am, in part, to discover, not invent. (p. 83)

He goes on to say that there are times when God calls particular people to things that they are not gifted for and to things that they are not inclined to do. But these kinds of calls, Hardy says, are the exception to the rule. If you are called in this way, it will be very clear. Crystal clear. Burning bush clear. Damascus road clear. Without this clarity, we are blessed with the task of discovering God’s intention in making us into the kinds of people we are. Who you are matters. To God. To the world.

And what you think matters to me. What do you think?

Tags: Books, Call to Ministry by Heidi
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