Where are you from?
John 1:43-51
In our baptism, God claims us as God’s own possessions and that our baptism is not so much about what we do but about what God does. This is good news that God takes us as God’s very own and never gives up that claim. This is not however a suggestion that we must do nothing or that no action on our part is called for. Baptism is mostly about what God does, but it also calls us for a response on our part. This response is how we live our lives as we answer Christ’s call to us, “Come and see” or come and follow me. We might describe this as living out our calling or living the Christian life. Some people call it the Christian vocation.
It is dangerous to follow the call of God. It might lead you to places you never imagined you would go. The expectations of parents, friends, and teachers might not be met. It leads us to question and examine all that we do from a different perspective. The call of God redefines who we are. If you want to know what is your vocation? “Then,” as Gilbert Meilander puts it, “the first question to ask is not, ‘What do I want to do with my life?’ It is not as if I first know myself and then choose a vocation that fulfills and satisfies me. For it is only by hearing and answering the divine summons, by participating in my calling, that I can come to know who I am. We are not who we think we are; we are who God calls us to be” (4).
There is nothing heroic about the vocation of following Christ. Instead, it invites us, all of Jesus’ followers, more deeply into our ordinary living. This living deeper is not a matter of doing the ordinary things of life in a different spirit. It is about doing them a different way with a different orientation, with a different understanding of how the world works. It invites us to do the ordinary things of life as people of God’s Garden of Love; it invites us to see the world with the eyes of God.
Reflection Questions:
How can we position and prepare ourselves spiritually to see as God sees?
How does God prepare us through relationships to see the world in a different way?
What role have other people played in you seeing the world from the perspective of God?
When have you most recently seen Jesus in the face of others?
How did that change your perspective and understanding of that person and other people?