Call to the Soul

Recently I spent some time with my mother who lives in a retirement facility. We’ve noticed the conflict between service that comes from the heart and profitability for the managing company. For the most part, staff members seem genuinely interested in helping the residents, but the kitchen is chronically understaffed while money is spent on decor to attract new residents. What a difference it would make if the management was operating out of a sense of call to provide optimum care for the residents instead!

Our theme for this year is “Invitation to the Work-Weary Soul.” In this issue, we focus on the matter of CALL – having a clear purpose which allows us to set priorities and do the things which matter most. Even when impersonal systems have major claims on our time and life energy, the sense of purpose which comes from knowing God’s call at any given stage of life can make pain and difficulties meaningful and give us a wider context for the daily decisions we have to make.

Biblical stories of call are many and varied. Few will be called to lead their people out of slavery as Moses was, but many will be called to the tasks of relationship like Sarah and Hagar, Jacob and Esau, David and Nathan, Jesus and the disciples. The Bible is full of call stories, in which ordinary people awaken to God’s purpose for their lives and wrestle with what that means in a practical sense. The people whom Jesus healed provide a good example. They were expected to change, to live in a different way. They were called to new life and we are too. Call gives us direction and purpose. It can reveal gifts we didn’t know we had.

Too often we have limited our understanding of call to full-time Christian service through the church. But when we study Paul’s missionary travels and the birth of the early church, we see that most people continued with their daily work, but came to it with a radically different perspective. The church was a place to learn about and practice the Jesus-style of relationships so that people would have the courage to follow God’s call in their daily lives.

The question of discovering God’s purpose (call) and claiming the right to make choices in that direction has emerged as the subtext for most Faith@Work events in the past 20 years. Yes, we need to meet Christ in a relational way, but ultimately the question of call arises and we ask “What is my life for? Why am I here?”

In my new book, Call to the Soul, I use the stories of Gideon and Esther to take a deeper look at the cycles of call. Once we believe that Christ is present and will guide us if we take the time to listen, we can expect at least four different calls in a normal lifetime: Who am I in the world? What is my deeper understanding of work? What is my gift for making the world a better place? And finally, what is my legacy? If you are feeling restless or dissatisfied with your life as it is, consider your call.

For group work, we also offer Dick Meyer’s new book, One Anothering Volume 2. In the next issue, we will feature it as a resource for use in building healthier small groups. You can order autographed copies directly from Faith@Work and help to support our Resource Department with your purchase.

And for mothers everywhere, especially yours and mine, we give thanks for their courage in saying “Yes” to God’s call to bear a new life into this world.

Marjory Bankson is president of Faith at Work and is a member of The Seekers Church, an offspring of Church of the Saviour in Washington DC.

Faith at Work is establishing a new website, Call To The Soul, focusing upon the journey of call.