In Search of Kingdom Living

I recently finished reading Courage and Calling by Gordon T. Smith, one of the books of the day at Urbana. I always wanted to read this classic and I’m glad I finally did. This book was re-released under the formatio line for IVP, a series of books focusing on spiritual formation.

I found this book to be timely at this point in my life. As I work through my last year at tyndale, I’ve been thinking a lot about my future vocation, and my calling in general.

Some quotes that made me think:

First, there is typically a sense of call that comes before or during the transition into adulthood – a call that reflects faith commitments… another call will come during midlife, a call that will represent a narrowing of perspective – a focus within the context of the bigger picture.

I’m wondering if I’m worrying too much about focusing my energies on a more refined calling, while neglecting the general sense of call that reflects my faith commitments. On the other hand, I’m still exploring what exactly are my faith commitments.

the temptations Jesus faced in the desert at the beginning of his public life and ministry (Lk 4:1-13): the desire for power, the desire for material security and comfort, and the desire for fame or prestige. It is easy to make vocational choices that are rooted in or motivated by these powerful and subtle temptations; it is then easy to rationalize choices around each of them.

I think my struggle is mainly with power and prestige. That can come so easily when you become a large fish in the small pond of the Chinese Christian world. I pray that may not be the case.

If we feel disconnected from the work that we do, from the organization we work for, from our coworkers and from the people we serve, the resolution must come through a renewed connection with ourselves.

I wonder if this is why I feel the disconnect with church, work and school?

Learning is perhaps the only pleasure that might replace increasing consumption as our chosen mode of enriching experience.

I really hope and pray this can be the case for me and my community.

Having a vocation never means that we are freed from the obligations and responsibilities of communal life. All vocations are communal in character. This is not all good news; the community, even the community of faith, can be oppressive… there may be times when we need to make a break, if we conclude that personal integrity is impossible because of the oppressive character of a community… this is why we cannot live merely in community. When we do, we are easily consumed by communal expectations rather than living our life in response to the voice of God.

I love Smith’s teaching on community, the good and the bad, the essential and the oppressive nature of community. That’s why community is balanced with solitude.

Solitude is fundamentally a place of prayer – of personal and individual encounter with God… Without community, solitude is nothing more than an escape from people and from the pressures and stresses of life and work. Stepping aside may have its time and place, but the danger is that it will become nothing more than self-indulgence.

I think I’ve been trying to balance these two aspects in my life. Certainly I’ve been more focused on the solitude side in my post-Waterloo days. I am wondering if I’ve manipulated my practice of solitude into a kind of self-indulgence.

All in all, this book was a good read. Very straight forward, almost like a textbook in terms of the flow of information. A lot of the teaching would be good for young career types like myself, but it would be beneficial for anyone who has never thought through God’s calling in their life.

Go check it out.