Sources: Amadeus by Peter Schaffer, “The Memorial” from Pensées by Blaise Pascal, “Who am I?” from Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sonnet No. 285 from The Poetry of Michelangelo

“Note: These chapters have been written as a series of individual meditations, to be read one day at a time.”

Introduction: Two Words That Changed the World: life is not an accident; God wanted you to be → responding to his call is most important; distortions: 1) shrinking: reducing the call to the individual; primary reason for West surpassing China in 1500: Christianity: ”We were asked to look into what accounted for the … preeminence of the West all over the world. … At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West has been so powerful.” (Niall Ferguson: Civilization) → not Christianity in general (it has been predominant in Europe since 4th century) but Reformation in particular that restored biblical truths eg 6 Cs: 1) calling (impact on purpose, work, and the rise of capitalism), 2) covenant (led to constitutionalism & constitutional freedom), 3) conscience (rise of religious freedom and human rights), 4) commitment to God’s people, the Jews (reversal of the horrendous anti-Semitism of medieval church), 5) coherence (thinking about anything and everything under the lordship of Jesus), 6) corrigibility (ongoing need of renewal and reformation); calling is personal but global as well: ”To explore the truth of God’s call is to appreciate what is nothing less than God’s grand global project for the restoration and renewal of humanity and the earth—and our part in it.”; distortions: 2) hollowing out of calling: shallow, empty ↔ God’s calling is clear, substantive and compelling; book = series of short reflections on the many-sided wonder of God’s call; read it slowly, be aware you are in God’s presence; two words that changed the world & can change ours too: “Follow me”

1. The Ultimate Why: how do I find & fulfill the central purpose of my life?; we all want to know what we are here for and why; Western civilization: first not to have an agreed-on answer to question of the purpose of life; we, modern people, have “too much to live with and too little to live for”; “in the midst of spiritual plenty, we have spiritual poverty”; ”This book is for all who long to find and fulfill the purpose of their lives. It argues that this purpose can be found only when we discover the specific purpose for which we were created and to which we are called. Answering the call of our Creator is “the ultimate why” for living, the highest source of purpose in human existence. Apart from such a calling, all hope of discovering purpose (as in the current talk of shifting “from success to significance”) will end in disappointment.”; “Science is meaningless because it gives no answer to our question, the only question important to us, ‘what shall we do and how shall we live?’” (Tolstoy); ”Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service.”; personal note: author challenged to become full-time minister if he was truly dedicated, understanding calling liberated him from this well-meaning but false teaching; volunteered in church for 9 months but realized ”it just wasn’t me”; passion: relate his faith to exciting and exploding secular world of early 1960s; Questions:
   1. What event, relationship, or situation has triggered a deep yearning for purpose and meaning in your own life?
   2. Why do times of transition challenge our sense of personal meaning?
   3. What does the author mean by “we have too much to live with and too little to live for”? How have you seen this evidenced in your own life and in the lives of people you know?
   4. Why are modern theories- such as capitalism, politics, or psychology-not adequate in answering our deeper questions of purpose and meaning?
   5. Why did you choose the career path you are on? Have you ever experienced “It just wasn’t me”? What did you do about it?
   6. How would your life be different if you lived out your “calling” as explained by the author?
   7. Scripture Focus: Read Genesis 1. Why did God create the world and human beings? What is different about the creation of humans and everything prior? For what purpose did God make man and woman
2. Seekers Sought: sad example of Leonardo da Vinci: hunger for knowledge but aware of brevity of life, pursuit of perfection turned into tragic impossibility; “when something more than human human seeking is needed if seeking is to be satisfied, then calling means that seekers themselves are sought”; true seekers: looking for something (not just drifters), stirred to look for answers beyond their present answers; 4 perspectives/motivation behind seeking: 1) search is everything & discovery means little → can be indistinguishable from believing nothing, condemned to perpetual wandering; 2) desire itself is the problem (ancient South Asian view), solution: transcend to state of “extinguishedness” (nirvana) → radically world-denying; neither view is satisfying → turn to two contrasting views of love: 3) way of eros: “great ascent” toward desired goal; seeking → loving → desiring → possessing → happiness, greatest happiness is the greatest good; 4) way of agape: “great descent”, love seeks out the seeker, introduced by Jesus, desire happiness is not wrong but it’s wrong to think happiness is to be found where they seek it, all objects short of God are incomplete and ultimately disappointing, true satisfaction & real rest can only be found in God who is the highest and most lasting good; we cannot find God without God → seeking is fruitless unless God initiates the search; secret of seeking: not human ascent to God but God descent to us; example: C. S. Lewis experience of “an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction”; Questions:
   1. How are “true seekers” different than “the spiritually unattached”? Which camp-if either-do you or your friends fall into and why?
   2. Why is disbelief a necessary early component of the true seeker’s search?
   3. Why does the author argue that most seekers turn quickly from the first two perspectives on seeking? What do these perspectives lack?
   4. What are the core differences between the two perspectives of love? How do they each see desire? The means of the search?
   5. How does C. S. Lewis’s story of coming to faith illustrate the agape perspective?
   6. Have you had moments of being “surprised by joy” or have you ever felt God “closing in” on you? Describe what these incidents were like and how you responded.
   7. Scripture Focus: Read Jeremiah 29:10-13. Who initiates the relationship between God and the exiled Israelites? What does God know about their future? Describe how the Israelites must have felt when they heard these words from God.
3. Differences Make a Difference: YOLO philosophy: You Only Live Once → what is the meaning of life?; there are important differences in different answers which makes important difference not only for individuals but entire societies; truth does matter, all ideas have consequences; 3 major answers: 1) Eastern answer: Hinduism & Buddhism, final reality is “undifferentiated impersonal”; meaning of life: “forget it and forget yourself”; freedom is not freedom to be an individual but freedom from individuality through detachment, cut from delusion, not incarnation but excarnation; 2) secularist answer: atheism, agnosticism, naturalism, humanism; final reality is chance, there is no God, purpose is up to us to decide (not to discover but to decide); 3) biblical answer: Jews, Christians; final reality: personal God who created is in his image and calls us into relationship with himself; two sources of life-purpose: who we are created to be & who we are called to be; there can be no calling without a Caller; answering the call is the road to purpose and fulfillment in your life; Questions:
   1. What is the difference between the statements, “You only live once, and you can’t take it with you” and, “You only live once—if then.”
   2. Why do you think there is such a craze today for all the books, seminars, conferences, and life coaches that claim to be able to help you find your life purpose? Have you found yourself caught up in this movement? If so, why?
   3. In an age of tolerance, relativism, and inclusivity, do you find it difficult to stand up for your personal beliefs? If you do find the courage to occasionally defend your absolutes, how do you do it? How do you feel during that time?
   4. Why are there so many different perspectives on the search for purpose?
   5. If you had to state what your personal purpose in life is, what would you say?
   6. Can you think of five truths that you would say are true for all people at all times?
   7. How is the biblical view of purpose different from the answers of the other world religions?
   8. Scripture Focus: Read 2 Timothy 4:1-5. What does being prepared “in season and out of season” mean to you? In what way is the popular craze for purpose today a reflection of “unsound doctrine”? How can you “keep your head in all situations” today?
4. Countercultural to the Core: Benjamin Disraeli: convert from Judaism, no barriers to rise in society ↔ Nathan Rothschild: insisted on remaining Jewish, rose through the ranks of English society through natural gifts & enterprise; became first Jewish member of Britain’s House of Lords → slipped away from celebration to pray in small synagogue; understood the danger of assimilation; Jews are called by God to be distinctively different, countercultural to the core → so are followers of Jesus; first call in bible: Abraham, radical departure, break & be different; call: not negative (~world denying asceticism) but positive (great nation & promise land) and global; yet it required him to make the break (had to leave Haran to enter the promised land); major reversal after exile from Eden; to gain three-fold benefits (children, land, influence on all humanity), he had to break with three primary social forces (country, culture, kin); Abraham never assimilated, “resident alien” in the world; “distinct”: Hebrew “excellent”, literally outstanding; distinctiveness is often discrimination and persecution;? Jesus’ call: similarly uncompromising, there must be no rival; we are called to be “in” the world but “not of” it; Christians in the West have lost distinctiveness → time to make a break; Christians have a duty to be different; Questions:
   1. What does being distinctively different, “countercultural” in your Christian faith, mean to you?
   2. In what ways is assimilation as disastrous as defeat, or success more dangerous to faithfulness than times of rejection and persecution?
   3. Have you ever faced a decision that called for you to go against the grain of popular culture? What was it? What were the results?
   4. What does the statement, “To reach the blessings, Abraham had to make the break” mean to you? Have you ever experienced anything similar?
   5. Why is it so difficult for us to stand out from our surroundings and everyone around us?
   6. After examining the shaping power of the social forces around you, its way of life, and its worship of its own special idols, what should be your response?
   7. Think back over God’s call to you, look at your life and your way of life in the light of all he has required of you, and ask yourself if you are making the needed break. If not, why not?
   8. Scripture Focus: Read Colossians 3:1-4;15-17. In what way can setting your heart and mind on things above help you to be different, whatever the cost? How does being “called to peace” make us different from the world’s way of solving problems? What do you imagine your life would be like if you did everything in the name of the Lord Jesus?
5. God’s Grand Global Project: today’s victim culture: evasion of responsibility, tendency to blame everyone except ourselves (eg. Adam, Cain) ↔ Abraham: first responder to God’s call, responds by quiet, unwavering trust in God (but not with blind submission ~ Islam); Torah sets out 613 different commands yet there is no Hebrew word for “obedience” (closest is “shema” = to “listen”, “pay attention and act accordingly”) → God is sovereign Lord but not dictator; free God called his free people who were free to listen actively & decide how to respond; Sinai covenant: not theocracy but “nomocracy” (rule of law, freely offered & freely chosen, with the full consent of the governed); we humans are created in God’s image, we are free & able to respond freely; distinct features in God’s call to Abraham & us: 1) Abraham was guided only by a voice (he saw God in action but never saw God himself) → central faculty for Jews & Christians in their relationship to God, in this life, is not the eye but the ear → this is a dividing line between Jewish/Christian faith and paganism/secularism & faithfulness and temptation; pagan idols can be seen but God must reveal himself to be known; images in Bible tied to desire, temptation, sin & idolatry (eg. in garden of Eden serpent pitted God’s word against internal desire triggered by the visual; Isaac recognizes Jacob’s voice but misled by evidence of touch, smell and taste); we Christians must prize & protect God’s word above all even in a visual culture (surrounded by fast-moving images, photographs, videos, graphics, emojis, appearances while importance of words & books are downplayed); 2) Abraham’s answer to God’s call is call of love: God is unique but also loving, quantitative (God is one) is just as important as qualitative (God has character); answer to God’s call is call to a relationship & relationship of love; Abraham: friend of God; Moses’ farewell speech: call to love the God who is one (Deut 6:4-5); strongest form of love: not unconditional love (can be abstract & irresponsible) but covenantal love-loyalty (→ apostasy is adultery, defection from faith is loss of first love); 3) from Abraham on, life of faith is call to freedom: goes beyond spiritual freedom from sin alone (eg. “Let my people go” in Exodus is grand master story of Western freedom); freedom in West: cut-flower freedom that cannot last as its roots have been severed; 4) call to a walk and a way of life: calling cannot be reduced to beliefs, ethics, doctrines (though they are crucial); what ultimately matters is how we behave (”walk before me and be blameless”); Jesus: way of life (Jn 14:6); children & future generations are at the heart of God’s call: transmission is also important; God’s call is not just about you or me, and our little worlds and our fleeting generation; God speaks to each of us as individuals but his call is about a whole new people & new way of life; Questions:
   1. Do you agree that we are living today in a victim culture, where it is second nature to blame everyone and everything except ourselves? If so, what examples of this can you think of?
   2. What is the significance of the fact that in Hebrew there is no word for “obedience,” and that the closest equivalent is the word shema, to “listen,” “heed,” to “hearken,” to “pay attention and act accordingly”?
   3. Why is the biblical truth about humans-that we are created in the image and likeness of God, free and able to respond freely-the key to our ability to answer his call?
   4. How does believing that the Bible is God’s Word enable us to more clearly follow his call and not fall for the allure of images, appearances, and desires, and their constant disparagement of truth and words?
   5. What is the danger in reducing God’s call to doctrines, creeds, or ethics?
   6. What does Jesus’ claim that he is the way (“I am the way and the truth and the life” [John 14:6]) mean to you?
   7. Scripture Focus: Read John 14:5-14. How do these verses speak to the call of God as a call to a walk and a way of life? Jesus promises to do whatever we ask in his name. What does that mean to you?
6. The Haunting Question: Václav Havel: first president of Czech Republic after “Velvet revolution” in 1989; letters from prison to his wife; central theme: responsibility as key to human identity → but responsibility assumes Someone to whom we are responsible; “Who am I?”; three attempts to explain human individuality: 1) in general terms: using categories (class, childhood neurosis, gender, generational profiles etc) → inadequate because we become prisoners of our category (”constrained to be”); 2) by constructing our own identify: freedom to be whatever we want (”courage to be”); Nietzsche: God is dead, meaning is not revealed → we have to create our own meaning out of nothing by sheer willpower; Western self-construction: primary focus on body (according to secular view that’s all we have) → absurd position: even we can do what we want, the question remains: what do we want? & in reality, will is not enough; 3) by carrying the script of our life stories: (”constituted to be”); “acorn theory” (origin in New Age) assumes we have a soul-companion/guardian-spirit who directs our choices → failing: fatalistic & deterministic; each position contains grain of truth but each have shortcomings; instead of being “constrained to be” we are “called to be”; humanness: response to God’s calling; following his call, we become what we are constituted to be by creation but we also become what we are not yet by re-creation as called people; only when we respond to Christ and follow his call do we become our real selves; modern man: profess to be unsure of God but pretend to be sure of themselves; followers of Christ have it the other way around: unsure of themselves but sure of God → eg. poem “Who Am I?” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Questions:
   1. What does Simone Weil mean by “We possess nothing in this world other than the power to say ‘I’”? How is this statement a powerful commentary on our world today?
   2. What is the connection that Václav Havel sees between responsibility and human identity?
   3. Many of today’s “self-styled answers” to our search for “biography” don’t answer our deepest yearnings for individual identity. Why is the “constrained to be” perspective inadequate? How have you experienced its limitations in your own life?
   4. Another perspective is that we have the willpower or “courage to be” anything we want. How much of your identity have you tried to fashion yourself? How successful have you been? How have you determined what it is that you want?
   5. A third modern perspective is that all is fated or “constituted to be.” What are some of the limitations of this view?
   6. How does being “called to be” move beyond the shortcomings of the other perspectives?
   7. How does God shape our individual identity when we respond to his call? What do you imagine your own life would be like if you responded to God’s call and grounded your identity in him?
   8. Scripture Focus: Read Exodus 3. What is the significance of how God addresses Moses from the bush? How does God identify himself? What is Moses initial reaction to God’s call? What is God’s response? How, in this moment, was God shaping Moses identity?
7. Everyone, Everywhere, Everything: William Wilberforce: two great objects: abolition of slave trade & moral reformation; nearly 50 years of battle; after conversion wanted to leave politics for ministry (“spiritual” instead of “secular” affairs), John Newton persuaded him to stay; our primary calling is to Someone (God) not something → vocational calling is always secondary; two distortions: calc l Catholic vs Protestant (→ see next chapter); 1) “Catholic distortion”: elevating the spiritual at the expense of the secular (eg. “full-time Christian service”); Eusebius (principal historian of early church): Christ gave “two ways of life” to his church: “perfect life” (spiritual - priests, monks, nuns) and “permitted” (secular - farming, trading, raising families); Augustine & Thomas Aquinas: elevated contemplative life over active life; distortion created double standard in faith; irony: monasticism reinforced the secularization it originally set out to resist; for most medieval Christians term “calling” was reserved for priests, monks and nuns, everyone else just had “work”; Martin Luther: The Babylonian Captivity of the Church: “The works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks, but that all works are measured before God by faith alone. … Indeed, the menial housework of a manservant or maidservant is often more acceptable to God than all the fastings and other works of a monk or priest, because the monk or priest lacks faith.”; if all that a believer does grows out of faith and is done for the glory of God, all dualistic distinctions are demolished; calling is the premise of Christian existence itself; ”Calling means that everyone, everywhere, and in everything fulfills his or her (secondary) callings in response to God’s (primary) calling”; Luther: God and the angels smile when a man changes diapers; recovering true calling had explosive cultural implications; calling gave to everyday work a dignity & spiritual significance under God that dethroned the primacy of leasure & contemplation; powerful influence in the rise of modern capitalism; calling gave idea of “talents” new meaning; transforming vision of lordship of Christ; ”There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out: ‘This is mine! This belongs to me!’” (Abraham Kuyper, Dutch prime minister); Questions:
   1. Why had William Wilberforce been tempted to leave Parliament? Do you think he could have accomplished the “two great objects” of God’s calling if he had entered the ministry? Why or why not?
   2. How is calling “becoming what we are not yet but are called by God to be”? How do you feel this applies to your life?
   3. What does calling mean as described in the New Testament?
   4. What is the difference between the primary and secondary calling of the follower of Jesus? Why do you think it is such a challenge for us to keep these together and in their proper order?
   5. In what ways have you been tempted into the “Catholic distortion” of calling-“elevating the spiritual at the expense of the secular”? What are some of the pitfalls of this line of thinking?
   6. How would you approach your work if you saw it as “unto the Lord” and on par with “full-time Christian service”? How would this change your work habits, goals, and relationships?
   7. Scripture Focus: Read Luke 18:9-14. Compare the approach to God of the Pharisee (an expert in Jewish religious law) and the tax collector (a civil servant of the ruling Romans). Why did the Pharisee think himself justified? In contrast, why did Jesus say it was the tax collector who was justified?
8. By Him, to Him, for Him: second distortion of calling: 2) “Protestant distortion”: Catholic distortion: spiritual form of dualism (elevating the spiritual at the expense of the secular) ↔ Protestant distortion: secular form of dualism (elevating the secular at the expense of the spiritual): reduces vocation to an alternative of work; failing to distinguish primary calling (”by God, to God, for God”) from secondary calling (”everyone, everywhere, in everything”); Calvin: occasionally equates calling and work; latent imbalance grows steadily into full-grown distortion in the Puritan era: work/trade/employment interchangeable with calling/vocation; calling shifted from God to rules/duties in society; original demand: “each Christian should have a calling” → reduced to: “each citizen should have a job”; secondary calling slowly swallowed up primary; result: work was made sacred, losing biblical balance (both creative & cursed); enthusiasm termed as “the Protestant ethic” (”The man who builds a factory builds a temple”); vocation became genteel word for lesser paid but sacrificial workers (nurses), for the religious (missionaries); Protestant deformation: religious sanctification of wordliness (”cheap grace” instead of “costly grace” - Bonhoeffer); two conditions for resolving the problem: 1) debunking the notion of calling without a Caller 2) restoring primacy of primary calling; Nietzsche: Christian morality impossible without Christian God → same is true for calling; Chambers: greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him; ”Do we enjoy our work, love our work, virtually worship our work so that our devotion to Jesus is off-center? Do we put our emphasis on service, or usefulness, or being productive in working for God-at his expense? Do we strive to prove our own significance? To make a difference in the world? To carve our names in marble on the monuments of time? The call of God blocks the path of all such deeply human tendencies. We are not primarily called to do something or go somewhere; we are called to Someone. We are not called first to special work but to God. The key to answering the call is to be devoted to no one and to nothing above God himself.”; Questions:
   1. Explain the frustrations that Norah Watson has with her job. What in her father’s career experience does she most desire for herself?
   2. Studs Terkel found “most people… live somewhere between a grudging acceptance of their job and an active dislike of it.” Where do you find yourself on this continuum—or are you closer to Norah’s father? Why do you feel this way about your work?
   3. How does the Protestant distortion of calling actually contradict its true purposes? Explain how this distortion confuses calling and vocation.
   4. How has your understanding of calling and vocation been affected by the Protestant distortion?
   5. What is the biblical view of work? How would this perspective change the way you see your career or job?
   6. Why does a calling without a Caller become nothing more than work?
   7. How can service for God potentially compete with the primary calling?
   8. Scripture Focus: Read Exodus 35:30-36:2. Who does God call in this passage? How are they able to accomplish the task to which he calls them? How is this an example of the primary and secondary calling functioning properly?
9. Do What You Are: “to play was to be” (Yehudi Menuhin, violinist); “Nunc dimittis” (John Coltrane, saxophonist, referring to Simeon’s prayer: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace”); we human beings are never happier when we are expressing the deepest gifts that are truly us; ”God normally calls us along the line of our giftedness, but the purpose of giftedness is stewardship and service, not selfishness.”; “do what you are” instead of “you are what you do”; our gifts are not really ours but God’s, we are only stewards; John Cotton’s sermon “Christian calling”: 3 criteria for choosing a job: 1) aiming not only our own but at the public good 2) we are gifted for the job and 3) guided toward it by God; we need to know our own unique design, which is God’s design for us; giftedness is “ours for others”; temptation: remember giftedness & forget stewardship; “calling” and “vocation” should be synonymous; if they are distinguished where “vocation” refers to clergy → Catholic distortion & where “vocation” means employment → Protestant distortion; stewardship respects both individual (particular) calling & corporate (general) calling (see next chapter); corporate calling prevents from excessive individualism; individual calling should complement, not contradict corporate calling; stewardship respects both later/special calling (specific, supernatural communication from God) & original/ordinary calling (”follow me”, even in the absence of special calling); ordinary calling: responsibility & high degree of “capitalist-style” enterprise on how we live our lives (cf. parable of the talents → servants were assessed based on their actions when the master was away); we all have an original calling even if we don’t have a special calling; some people have both; practical consequences: 1) you don’t need special calling for every task (no NT example of God’s special calling to anyone into a paid occupation & role of religious professional); 2) you do have a calling even if you don’t have a special calling; prophets: special calling to remind God’s people of their original calling; stewardship regards things that are central vs peripheral to our calling; calling has multiple dimensions (eg. Martin Luther: husband/father/pastor/professor); ”This distinction is important because it is easy to become spoiled if we concentrate on the core of our giftedness—as if the universe existed only to fulfill our gifts. But it is also easy to become discouraged by making the same mistake. We live in a fallen world, and the core of our gifts may not be fulfilled in our lives on earth. If there had been no Fall, all our work would have naturally and fully expressed who we are and exercised the gifts we have been given. But after the Fall this is not so. Work is now partly creative and partly cursed. Thus to find work that perfectly fits our callings is not a right, but a blessing.”; work is a necessity for survival; ”tentmaking was never the heart of Paul’s calling, it was only a part, as all of life is. As a part of our calling such “tentmaking” at worst is work that frustrates us because it takes time we wish to spend on things more central. But at best it is work that frees us to get to that which is central. By contrast, whatever is the heart of our calling is work that fulfills us because it employs our deepest gifts.”; stewardship regards both the clarity & mystery of calling: in most cases clear sense of calling only comes through time of searching / trial & error; life is lived forward but understood backward (Søren Kierkegaard); “Many lives have a mystical sense, but not everyone reads it aright. More often than not it is given to us in cryptic form, and when we fail to decipher it, we despair because our lives seem meaningless. The secret of a great life is often a man’s success in deciphering the mysterious symbols vouchsafed to him, understanding them and so learning to walk in the true path.” (Solzhenitsyn); Questions:
   1. Think back to your childhood. Do you recall times when you were in your element, when “the door opened and let the future in”? How did these activities affect later decisions about life and career?
   2. How much of your identity has been shaped by what you do—instead of who you are? What would you be doing if you were to “do what you are”?
   3. What are the practical implications of the notions of stewardship and that our gifts are “ours for others”?
   4. What might be some signs in our lives that we are becoming selfish about our giftedness?
   5. Why should the corporate calling prescribed in Scripture take precedence over the individual calling?
   6. What are the dangers of elevating the special calling over the ordinary calling?
   7. How can we balance the desire to “do what you are” with the reality that we may not see our gifts fulfilled because of the world’s fallenness?
   8. Scripture Focus: Read 1 Corinthians 9:14-23. How was Paul’s understanding of his calling informed by a sense of stewardship?
10. A Time to Stand: battle of Thermopylae: King Xerxes’s revenge of the death of his father Darius; 300 Spartans led by Leonidas stood firm & fought until death (“we behaved as they wished us to”); church confronted by greatest challenge: 1) powerful culture to shape behavior 2) new & old competing gods; deepest challenge is spiritual/theological, not political/ideological/military; calling is indispensable to the integrity & effectiveness of the church; calling touches personal lives but cultural life also; time to behave as the Lord wished & taught us to behave; truth of calling is more than personal; reason for hope: crises are also opportunities; Questions:
    1. In describing the story of Thermopylae, Montaigne asserts that “there are triumphant defeats that rival victories.” How is this possible?
    2. What is an example of heroic sacrifice that you have found particularly stirring? Why do these stories inspire us so powerfully?
    3. How does the nature of our global economy affect followers of Christ? What does the author see as the church’s greatest challenge in modern culture?
    4. What has contributed to the thinking that faith should be kept to “the personal, the relational, the spiritual, and the simple”? Why does the author argue against this way of thinking?
    5. Why should calling and the gospel be central to our response to these challenges?
    6. What is your thinking about faith having the potential to change culture? Give examples of ways this can happen.
    7. Are you in a position right now in which your taking a stand could make a difference? What is that position? What is holding you back?
    8. Scripture Focus: Read 2 Timothy 4:1-8. In anticipation of his impending execution, what does Paul charge Timothy to do? Why did Paul have confidence that he was finishing well? Where did his assurance lie for the future?
11. Let God Be God: The Portage to San Christobal of A. H. (George Steiner): Hitler defending himself against the accusations of the Jews; words are deepest & fullest expression in which God discloses himself (→ no image); two dimensions of God’s call: summon (take down shoe) & invitation (follow me); response of disciples: act of obedience, not confession of faith; “disciple of dismay” (Chambers): following Christ even if we are afraid (Mk 10:32); ”There is an aspect of Jesus that chills the heart of a disciple to the core and makes the whole spiritual life gasp for breath. This strange Being with His face “set like a flint” and His striding determination, strikes terror into me. He is no longer Counsellor and Comrade, He is taken up with a point of view I know nothing about, and I am amazed at Him. At first I was confident that I understood Him, but now I am not so sure. I begin to realize there is a distance between Jesus Christ and me; I can no longer be familiar with Him. He is ahead of me and He never turns round; I have no idea where He is going, and the goal has become strangely far off.” (Chambers); “let God be God”: not condescending (let children be children) but refers to his authority; Martin Luther feared God more than the emperor; Questions:
    1. Why would the nature of the Jew’s understanding of God be “cruel” to someone who doesn’t believe in this God? Why would Jesus’ sweetness be “terrible”?
    2. How is calling central to the transaction that takes place at Sinai?
    3. What are the two dimensions of God’s call? Do you tend to respond to only one dimension or another? What is the result?
    4. How did the disciples respond to Jesus’ call to follow him? Why is it hard for us to obey blindly?
    5. In what ways does our modern world challenge God’s authority? In what areas of your life do you feel the strain between God and the world?
    6. How are calling and obedience key elements of restoring the authority of faith over the world?
    7. What does it mean to you to “let God be God”?
    8. Scripture Focus: Read Matthew 4:18-22. What does Jesus say to Peter and Andrew that compels them to immediately leave all they have? How is this illustrative of both the primary and secondary calling? What does the immediate response of the disciples say of the authority of Jesus?
12. The Audience of One: Andrew Carnegie: “king of steel”, resolved to get rich to please her mother; vital feature of calling: focus on the Audience of One, to live life “coram deo” (before the heart of God); Father “knows” every hair on our heads and “sees” what we do in secret → Christ-centered heroism doesn’t need to be noticed/publicized; we have nothing to prove before man → nothing to gain & lose; 20th century: started with string leadership (Churchill, Roosevelt, bad ones: Lenin, Stalin), ended with weak leadership codependent on followership; Puritans lived as if they had swallowed gyroscopes ↔ modern Christians live as if they had swallowed Gallup polls; “in those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.” (Martin Luther King); part of author’s calling: make sense of the gospel to the world (as an apologist) & make sense of the world to the church (as an analyst), method: between academic & popular thinking → criticism from both sides (too intellectual vs mere popularizing) → comforting reminder: ultimately only the Audience of One matters; “The more one sees of life… the more one feels, in order to keep from shipwreck, the necessity of steering by the Polar Star, i.e. in a word leave to God alone, and never pay attention to the favors or smiles of man; if He smiles on you, neither the smile or frown of men can affect you.” (General Charles Gordon, military strategist, legendary commander); Questions:
    1. The story of Andrew Carnegie illustrates our desire for approval. Carnegie’s hometown in Scotland was his most important audience. Who is your primary audience? How has this need for approval affected your goals and life decisions?
    2. What does it mean to live life before “the heart of God”? What do you find challenging about this notion? Freeing?
    3. How has being “other directed” affected society as a whole?Leadership? The church?
    4. What has contributed to the shift of being “other directed” in modern society?
    5. What are the implications of the Audience of One for your life’s greatest challenges? Failure and criticism?
    6. Scripture Focus: Read Matthew 6:1-4. Why does Jesus require that our good deeds be done in secret?
13. Our Utmost for His Highest Still: Churchill: consumed by personal destiny in 1940 to lead Britain against Nazi forces; highest passion: desire for God; Moses (burning bush), Pascal (memorial entitled Fire); God’s calling is the key to igniting a passion for the deepest growth and highest heroism in life; crisis of heroism: 1) response with suspicion 2) instant fame offered by media 3) denial of God → there are no knights of faith if there is no Higher Majesty to dub them; God’s call is vital to growth & heroism because 1) it brings out our full capacity as human beings 2) it includes imitating Christ who - unlike human heroes - will never be surpassed; imitation is vital part of discipleship but it is Christ who enables is to do what he calls us to do; “my utmost for his highest” (Chambers); Questions:
    1. How would you describe Pascal’s encounter with God as recorded in his “Memorial”? What about this encounter do you think inspired Pascal’s great achievements?
    2. How have mistrust and the modern celebrity contributed to the demise of heroism?
    3. Who are your heroes and why?
    4. How does responding to God’s call draw out our very best?
    5. Practically speaking, what does imitating Christ look like for you, the twenty-first-century believer?
    6. Define excellence from a Christian perspective.
    7. Scripture Focus: Read Matthew 25:14-30. How does the lord distribute the talents? How does he reward the faithful servants? What do you make of the unfaithful servant’s reason for burying the talent? What does this passage say about our responsibilities over what God has given each of us?
14. Where the Buck Stops, There Stand I: Picasso: despite atheist & destructive & self-centric life wanted to swear fidelity in front of church; calling: basis for moral responsibility & ethics; responsibility for (modern) vs responsibility to (original); humanity: response to hearing God’s word (we are reasonable because we are response-able); traditional morality linked to accountability ↔ modern rise of anonymity; test of true responsibility: what we do when no one sees but God; no responding / no responsibility apart from the call; Questions:
    1. Why would Picasso, an avowed atheist, go into a church to pledge his undying love? How do all promises cry for an eternal reference point?
    2. Why is “responsibility” alone insufficient for rectifying the current moral crisis? Have you experienced or witnessed some of the weaknesses of modern responsibility?
    3. What is the difference between being “responsible for” something and “responsible to” someone?
    4. How does the author describe the relationship between calling, responsibility, and obedience?
    5. How does having an Audience of One guard you against irresponsibility— especially when no one else is around?
    6. Scripture Focus: Read Matthew 25:31-46. On what does Christ base his judgment? Why are those who are judged surprised? How does this passage relate to the chapter you’ve just read?
15. People of the Call: Le Chambon: small French town where Huguenots saved 5000+ Jewish children during WWII; call of Jesus is personal but not purely individual, it is also a corporate calling; community is rare experience in modern world; bias against institutions (→ Kafka novels: The Castle & The Trial); corporate nature of church weakened by rise of voluntary associations; NT: “church” = “called out people”; commitment to corporate calling: 1) resisting casual individualism (eg, explosion of denominations; rather: commitment to faithful, regular worship) 2) resisting fallacy of particularism (ie, there is only one particular Christian way to do a thing eg politics/raising a family; rather: individual callings must honor purpose & interest of the church of Christ) 3) remembering constant need of reformation (semper reformanda) incl. reformation of reformation; “without individuals, nothing happens, without institutions, nothing survives” (Talleyrand); Questions:
    1. What does it take for a community to pull off a feat like the one Le Chambon accomplished in World War II?
    2. Why do you think praise of their actions made the Chambonnais uncomfortable?
    3. How has community been weakened in the modern world? What has been your experience of community, in the past and in the present?
    4. How have voluntary associations and parachurch organizations, while greatly beneficial to society, undermined the corporate nature of the church? How might this be corrected?
    5. How is the church an integral part of our response to Jesus’ call?
    6. What does the corporate calling say of the modern trend of “church-hopping”?
    7. Why is it so difficult for us to grasp and fulfill this corporate aspect of calling
    8. Do you think it is possible to fulfill your individual call separate from the corporate call? How so?
    9. Scripture Focus: Read 1 Corinthians 12:1-27. How does Paul account for the diversity of gifts and ministries within the community of Christ? Why does he use the image of the body to describe how everyone is to relate to one another?
16. Followers of the Way: a Christian is far from having arrived, always on the road as “a follower of Jesus” and the “follower of the Way”; criticism of Christians: not Christlike; focus shift from “Christ” to “Christianity” → mark of corruption; calling helps us safeguard from slipping from Christ → Christian → Christianity by reminding us that 1) we are only followers of Christ when in fact we follow Christ (Christians who are not following his call contradict Christ); “The Way” is for traveling (→ pilgrim’s progress): either we progress or we are not on the Way; calling reminds us that 2) while we are still alive the journey is incomplete; journeying: most apt metaphor for human life; we should always remember that none of us have arrived yet; “You can’t judge Christianity simply by comparing the product in these two people; you would need to know what kind of raw material Christ was working on in both cases.” (C. S. Lewis: God in the Dock); calling reminds us that 3) there are many more who are followers of Christ than we realize; exclusion is always the result from making a false idol of purity; Questions:
    1. What is the difference between corporate and institutional in terms of faith?
    2. Why is there a tendency for faith to become ordinary and routine? How can we guard against this deterioration?
    3. Are the charges made against the Christian faith harsh and unwarranted or a fair assessment of its history? Why or why not?
    4. Do you find dropping the term Christianity and using terms like follower of Jesus instead of Christian only a matter of semantics or is it a helpful distinction? Why?
    5. What does “homesickness of nostalgia” mean? What has triggered these moments of longing for you?
    6. How is the follower of Jesus on life’s journey a wayfarer and not a wanderer?
    7. What is the danger in forgetting that life is an unfinished journey? How have you traveled thus far on your journey?
    8. Scripture Focus: Read John 14:1-6. How do Jesus’ words of comfort to his disciples relate to the journey of life? Describe what you imagine the final destination-heaven-will be like.
17. The Signs of the Times: biblical view of time: neither purely cyclical (Hinduism & Buddhism), nor purely chronological; time & history created by God; humans: act on God’s behalf & responsible to God; our calling is to act into history with a goal beyond history & discern the times we live in; Questions:
    1. What are the differences between the Bible’s view of time and history and the views of other religions and worldviews?
    2. Why is discerning the times in which we live so important for us to act wisely and well in our day?
    3. The Zealots of Jesus’ day did not “get” him and even his closest friends James and John did not “get” him at first. Why was that the case?
    4. What does “seeing through a glass darkly” mean in our ability to read the signs of the times today?
    5. Is your calling and desire to be like King David, a person after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22)? If so, how can that desire become an even greater passion in your life?
    6. Would you say that you have an inkling of what you believe are God’s purposes for this generation, and for your own part in it? What steps could you take to become more informed in this area?
    7. What role should humility play in our journey to discern God’s call?
    8. Scripture Focus: Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-15. Can you think of an example from your own life of God making “everything beautiful in its time”? What do these verses say about the sovereignty of God?
18. There but for the Grace of God Goes God: reverse side of calling: temptation of conceit (eg. spire of Salisbury Cathedral); being chosen doesn’t imply being better; pride attacks in our strongest points;
19. What Is That to You? calling is vulnerable to envy (eg. Mozart vs Salieri); envy is “sorrow at another’s good” (Thomas Aquinas); “Envy begins by ask- ing plausibly: ‘Why should I not enjoy what others enjoy?’ and it ends by demanding: ‘Why should others enjoy what I may not?’” (Dorothy Sayers); envy corrupts calling by introducing competition & its grudge is ultimately against God himself; “What is that to you? Follow me!” (John 21:18-22)
20. More, More, Faster, Faster: calling is essential to guide and restrain modern capitalism from destroying itself; money is spiritual issue; its pursuit is insatiable (”chasing after wind” ~ addiction); chief heresy: things are not made to be used but to be sold (Chesterton); money cannot buy the deepest things we desire; Jesus: use of Mammon shows that it is a real power, active agent, genuine rival to God; calling has been undermined by prosperity; “Religion brought forth prosperity and the daughter destroyed the mother” (Cotton Mather); American preachers: “It is often difficult to ascertain from their discourses whether the principal object of religion is to procure eternal felicity in the other world or prosperity in this.” (Alexis de Tocqueville) → health and wealth gospel; calling means that for the follower of Christ 1) God is master above Mammon 2) they operate with different mentality (”calling economy” vs “commercial economy”): whatever we do in life we do it because we are called to it rather than because we get paid for it; whether we are doing it for our own sake or the sake of others, we are happy to be doing it, even if nobody is watching us and nobody pays us; we do it “gratis pro deo” (”free and for God”); work of art must not be reduced solely to a commodity; money: medium of exchange rather than idol
21. Combating the Noonday Demon: calling is best antidote to sloth; sloth ≠ idling, lethargy, more than physical laziness; sloth = giving up on pursuit of God, the true, the good and the beautiful (”who cares?”); main entry points of modern sloth: 1) philosophical (loss of faith in God), 2) cultural (convenience, comfort, consumerism), 3) biological (failures, midlife crisis); eg: choosing work only for external reasons (salary, prestige, pressure) not for internal too (giftedness, calling); solution is not to switch from secular to religious job (→ Catholic distortion)
22. A World with Windows: calling counters modern pressure toward secularization; call of Jesus summons to exercise spiritual disciplines & experience supernatural realities; secularization: not disappearance of religion but marginalization of religious ideas & institutions; modern life: “world without windows” (Peter Berger), ordinary reality is the only reality, no need for God; spirituality: matter of another reality; spiritual disciplines: vital to sustain calling (eg. solitude important to practice living before Audience of One); today: we worship our work, work at our play, play at our worship;
23. Locked Out and Staying There: calling counters modern pressure toward privatization because it insists that Jesus Christ is Lord of every sphere of life; Abraham Kuyper (prime minister, pastor, editor etc): “There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, ‘This is mine! This belongs to me!’”; calling keeps us from three pitfalls: 1) pitfall of “privatization”: faith belongs to private life only; problem: lacks totality; Jesus is not a “religious leader” but Lord of all life; Christian faith becomes socially irrelevant even if privately engaging; 2) pitfall of “politicization”; problem: lacks tension (between allegiance of Christ and anything else); 3) pitfall of “pillarization”: building Christian institutions; problem: lacks transformation, vulnerable to corruption from within; calling resists privatization (by insisting on the totality of faith), politicization (by demanding tension with every human allegiance) and pillarization (by requiring attitude that transforms society by constant engagement);
24. A Focused Life: calling counters modern pressure of pluralization & helps live a focused life; to be modern = to be addicted to choice & change; pluralization leads to decrease in commitment & continuity, overload, loss of unity & coherence; calling 1) subverts modern idolatry of choice (= being chosen) 2) gives sense of continuity & coherence 3) helps us to be single-minded;
25. Dreamers of the Day: T. E. Lawrence; calling is prime source of Christian vision & visionaries; calling’s vision must be guarded against 1) spurious visions (faculty of imagination has fallen & become chief means to aspire to the godhead ↔ Christian vision must be held accountable) 2) pitfalls of genuine vision (static bias: justify the status quo & progressive bias: demolition of tradition) 3) deceptive look-alikes (self-help, positive thinking, where faith in God becomes faith in faith, or ideal of chivalry, or Faustian striving to transgress boundaries - a.k.a. “Adam’s disease);
26. Patches of Godlight: calling transforms commonplace & menial with splendor of ordinary; author’s great-great-grandmother stepped back from committing suicide when seeing a man plowing; prayed for descendants for dozen generation; modern fastidiousness: dangerous combination of receding unpleasant realities & growing distaste of unpleasant realities; doing things for instrumental instead of intrinsic reasons; calling 1) reminds of our audience (drudgery done for God is lifted & changed) 2) focuses our attention on things as they are (Christianity both world denying and world affirming, Dorothy Sayers opposes gainful employment ie. working to make money to do something else) 3) reminds us that drudgery is part of the cost of discipleship)
27. Let All Your Thinks Be Thanks: calling reminds us that nothing in life should be taken for granted but everything in life must be received with gratitude; modern world: transformed sense of dependency into sense of autonomy & sense of moral debt into sense of rights/entitlement; “what do you have that you did not receive?” → this includes calling too; calling & gratitude reminds us that 1) we should be givers of grace too 2) gratitude must be our first & constant response to God;
28. Everybody’s Fools: calling entails the cost of discipleship, even to renounce self; Francis of Assisi: transformed from carefree troubadour to God’s fool; “fool proper” (=man who doesn’t fear God) vs “foolbearer” (=man who is foolish in the eyes of the world); “holy folly” had bad reputation (used to justify anti-intellectualism) but is central to call to discipleship; foolbearing 1) is the cost of discipleship (Bonhoeffer) 2) positions is before the world as counterculture 3) is Christ’s way to responding injury (instead of playing the victim); foolbearing = faithfulness;
29. The Hour Has Come: sense of timing is important part of calling (eg. Julius Caesar, Churchill, Bismarck, Jesus); calling is a matter of 1) relying on God (our times are in his hands, God’s timing is rarely our timing) 2) renouncing inadequate methods for achieving timeliness 3) readiness (eg. Israel’s responsiveness to pillar of cloud & fire) 4) resolution;
30. Last Call: calling is central to finishing well (eg. James von Moltke, book: Letters to Freya; Michelangelo’s honorary medal: dog leading blind pilgrim); calling 1) keeps us journeying purposefully until the very end (balance between opposite extremes: thinking we have already arrived vs being on a constant journey without an end) 2) prevents confusing termination of occupation vs calling (vocations never end even when occupations do ↔ Protestant distortion) 3) encourages is to leave the outcome of our lives to God