Follow the Energy

by Nancy Boyle

I will never forget a phone call I received some years ago and my reaction to it! I was needed to complete a staff for a Leadership Training Event in Colorado! I surprised myself by saying yes. I felt this strong urge deep within me to accept. I knew I was not really qualified, since I had not completed the necessary training but someone was sick and they needed me. It was strange that I would even consider leaving home, job, plans with grandchildren yet I wanted to do this strange and wonderful thing. There were all sorts of hurdles with the flight plans and all my child care arrangements. It seemed as if I was just watching myself do things I had never done before with the assurance that I could! I will never forget the feeling of running to catch the plane, there had even been some last minute confusion at the airport. I realized as I boarded the plane there had been plenty of chances to back out or to see the obstacles as a door that was closing but I never did. I felt carried by a different energy. Was it coming from God? Had God indeed called me?

Since that experience so long ago I have always clarified a call using the test of “want to”. If the idea has an “ought” or “should” feel attached, it is usually coming from somewhere else within me. The energy is not the same. As a person of faith I should not be surprised that God calls me to the things I want to do and can do and for which I have the enthusiasm and gifts. It is not that it is always easy or even pleasant but a deep sense of call shows me that the gifts are there for the work. The “want to” is there as well as the different energy.

I recently heard Thomas Cahill speak about his book The Gifts of The Jews (Doubleday 1998). He describes vividly the Wheel of Life that was in all the early religions. “The Jews were the first people to break out of this circle and find a new way of thinking and experiencing, a new way of understanding and feeling the world, so much so that it might be said with some justice that theirs is the only new idea that human beings ever had. The words ‘Abram went’, he says were two of the boldest words in all literature. Out of Sumer, civilized repository of the predictable, comes a man who does not know where he is going but goes forth under the prompting of his God.” Human beings have a future! Cahill was asked if Abraham and Mary were the only ones God called in their time. “Oh no, he responded, God is always calling, they were the ones who listened and heard!”

Since that experience so long ago I have always clarified a call using the test of “want to”. If the idea has an “ought” or “should” feel attached, it is usually coming from somewhere else within me.

God is a God who calls! We are a part of God’s plan. Our Bible is full of stories of people God has called to do strange and wonderful things. Most of them felt unqualified as Jeremiah did in Jeremiah 1. Isaiah describes his experience in Isaiah 6. Moses hears God’s call in the desert as he struggles with the injustices he has seen to his people in Egypt, Exodus 3. These are only a few but the Old Testament is filled with stories of God speaking to God’s people. Maybe they too felt this same energy pull to respond. Ananias, Phillip and Paul are some of the great stories of call in the book of Acts. There are many others not named and that might include me and you!

It is exciting to me to think that I too am being called and that my listening is important. Even at my age there is something for me to do that is just my size and matches my gifts. My calls have changed many times over the years but this has always been true. Not necessarily comfortable or even fun but the energy to do the job has always been there. There has been deep joy in my response. And I will know its my call because in spite of anything, I want to do it. Follow the energy!

1.  A time when I responded to someone’s need with energy that surprised me.

2.  What do you want most for your family? Your church or spiritual community? Could that be a call for you?

 Nancy Boyle is a relational Bible teacher and member of the Elder Council of Faith at Work.