Maybe I Need an Editor

OK, Greg, you caught me again.

Sometimes I write and don't do much editing. (Sometimes?) I am one of these kind of people that write off the top of my head and make mental jumps that are leaps of fancy (if not fantasy.) Sunday's post, "On the Front Line" was one of those that did just that.

And as usual my alter editor (no, he's not my alter ego) commented on it.

Too often what also happens is that those of us who have been in the "church field" use words and don't expect others outside the church to use them- or if they do they naturally use them in the wrong way. So at the end of Sunday's post I was talking about someone saying to me concerning my non-church-based profession:

"Man, you have a calling!"

To which I responded with tongue firmly planted in cheek, dripping irony:

Can you say that outside the church?

Well Greg in the comments answered that question from the non-church perspective:

It is said all of the time, dear friend. People speak often of their "vocation", literally what they are called to do. They perhaps don't realize the etymology of the word, however that does not negate the persistence of calling or "the call."

Which really was the point of what I was saying, somewhat sarcastically, with that last line. But obviously I made the mental jump which wasn't all that clear in the post itself. Very simply, too often, we in the church think that "calling" and "vocation" are only possible in the church. Yes, what I do may be a calling, but not a full "Calling" which can happen in the church.

A young person I knew had a one time decided to enter the ordained ministry of the church. They felt the calling, they thought. They made their feeling known and everyone was ecstatic. "Wow! That's great. You're going to serve God. Neato!"

Several years elapse from that event and many things have happened. One, and not the least, was that the person decided that the "call" was not what they had thought. They headed a different direction in their life. Obviously many of those who knew about the call to ministry in the church were now shaking their heads in sadness over this change of heart.

"Such a waste," some said to the person. To have lost "The Call" was a tragedy to everyone...

except that person who was now quite happy doing what they felt, at that time, called to do.

Instead of trying to knock off a quick post with sarcasm and irony dripping, I should have given the context and found a better way of showing that instead of one of my "throw-off" closing lines.

It is very clear to me, as evidenced by the past five years, that it is quite possible to say those things about call and vocation and ministry outside the institutional church. In fact it is essential that we learn to do so with the full sense of Calling and Vocation possible. To limit those to the institution is to limit our awareness of the breadth and depth of God's work and calling of us to live it and do it.