A-maze-ing Grace

Working on my new book The Faith Matrix has caused me to read deeply about spiritual disciplines,  and has changed my views on a lot of things.   One of them has been the issue of God's calling. 

I always thought of God's calling was about destinations.  In the Bible, people were called either called from somewhere or to somewhere. Israel was called from Egypt.  Paul was called to Macedonia.  Jeremiah was called to preach.  Amos was called from being a dresser of sycamore trees,  Jonah was called to Nineveh,  Abraham was called from Ur, etc.

But really, this is hardly ever how God's calling works.  Most of the time we are not called to or from anywhere.  Calling is a lifestyle, not a destination.  We are called to follow, that's all. 

Jesus called his disciples by saying "Follow me."  He did not tell them where they were going.   The only reason He tells us anything about our destination is to either redirect us when we are going wrong  or give us hope to go further.  We do not need to know tomorrow if we trust God.  We only need to know where He wants us today. 

Some ancient traditions illustrated this by building prayer mazes. It was a tool for spiritual reflection.   In a maze, we do not know what is around the corner.  All we know is what is just in front of us.

Life is a maze in which we follow Jesus,  seeing only His back as He rounds the corner,  knowing that if we stay where we are, we miss Him;  if we hesitate, we are left behind.  If we go ahead of Him, we  waste precious time on wrong turns. Only by moving when He moves and holding when He holds will we actually find our way though the maze. 

We are not "called" to be ministers or missionaries so much as we are called fo follow wherever he leads.

To follow Jesus  means spending time getting acquainted with Him through prayer and the Word.  We let go of our desires for worldly comforts and carry no more than we need. We remember that we are not needed here,  that the world can carry on very well without us.  It requires that we both listen to the Spirit and know the Word and be in constant contact with Him.

Here's where I get into trouble--I want God to give me a road map rather than be my guide.  I try to discern where I am supposed to be years down the road, rather than just keeping up with where He wants me today. 

Most of my life I have followed what I thought was my career path, moving from one church to another.  It was a straight road, but a dull one.

Now, God has made several turns in my life--and I am glad of it. There are no certainties ahead, but there are possibilities.  For the first time in years. I am growing spiritually again. 

I'm not out of the maze yet.  There are many twists and turns ahead.  But that's part of the fun of following Jesus.