God's Mission

We live between the Fall and the Consummation of all things. God is, in Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit, working to bring all things to redemption. His mission is sure and we can be certain He will accomplish it. He calls us to join Him. He calls us to minister the truth of the gospel through lives of love and words that bring the healing power of the gospel. He calls us to work for healing and justice and beauty. The idea that we think of something that sounds good and ask God for help is flawed - we are called to join God's mission, He is not called to join ours. Let us, through His word and the leading of the Spirit, see what God is doing around us and join Him.

When God seems too close

Sometimes we say that God seems too far away. When we are looking for direction, when we are in need of divine intervention - we may cry out to God to come close. But, as we have been talking about over the last few weeks, even then I think we may want him to come close on our own terms. Bringing what we want, what we think we need - in the manner we want Him to. A very big trained helper, bringing help.
But, of course, God does not actually come close to us in the manner we prescribe, or even in the timing we request. Sometimes God hits us with a burning bush - something we weren' t looking for with a message we weren't seeking for a problem we weren't trying to solve. Asking us to leave something, go to someone, change this, give that up. Coming close on His agenda. Do we really want this? We know the right answer should be yes, but it does not always feel comfortable, or even comforting.
We are called to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength - and that means loving him when He comes too close for comfort - even learning to love that He comes too close for comfort. Even seeking His closeness on His terms, in His time, in His way - when we can be there, we are finally in a position to keep this first and greatest commandment.

God's Call

God's call on our lives seems harder to figure out than it actually is. God calls us to follow Jesus, to walk humbly, to have mercy, to love people, to be conformed to the image of His Son. Along the way, we will get married or not, move to this place or that, have this job or that, spend our time on hobbies, service, learning, relationships and work. We often focus on the part of God's call that is very specific to our temporal, immediate reality (the what, the when, the how) - when who it is that He calls us to be is eternal and will transcend all of these other things that so occupy us.
I'm not suggesting that these other things are not important, that we should sell everything and become a monk or a nun (necessarily), but that in focusing on what is difficult to discern, we exclude what God calls us to that is plain - and that puts all of the other pieces of our lives in His proper perspective.