Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · April 30, 2006

Third Sunday of Easter

Prayer of the Day

Lord, we thank you for this day and for the gift of life.  Be with us in this hour of worship, we pray, that we may heed together your call to lives of service and praise.  Amen.

Scripture

Genesis 45:4-8

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.”  When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!  And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.  For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and harvesting.  But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.” 

Message

So What Is God Doing With You After Graduation?

Rick Frost

As you may have already guessed, this is senior recognition day at Broadway Christian Church.  Fifteen of Broadway’s brightest and best are finishing up high school in just a couple of weeks and preparing for the next step in their journey from youth to adulthood.  It is a journey that those of us who have taken maybe a few years before know is not simply a four-year journey, probably not an eight- year journey, but a lifelong effort at constantly discovering, constantly rediscovering deeper and deeper levels of who we are, and whose we are, and why we were put here on this earth to begin with.

Thomas Aquinas once said, “Always rejoice in the good works that you do.”  For many of our young people, and I have found for some not so young, our response is, “Lord, I would love to if I could just figure out what good work to do.”  Indeed, the choice of one’s life’s work is one of those things that just keeps cropping up throughout the years.  It is one of those key decisions that we keep making and remaking all along the path.  What we know is that people like Marley Cassels and other members of this culture in which we live may, not only have seven different jobs, but maybe seven different vocations – seven different careers before their working life is completed.  That’s an amazing thing.

Now, before we go too far, let me be quick to say that is a choice not everybody in the world gets to make.  If you were brought up in poverty, if you belong to certain families that have certain kinds of expectation and traditions, if you come from a culture that has very, very narrow and constricted boundaries, it may mean there are really very few choices you can make about your life’s work.  One student said, “My Mom’s a banker.  My Dad’s a banker.  I’m doomed.  Hello, City Bank; here I come.”  Who did not see in the book or film “Geisha” the clear limitations some cultures place on its people, especially women in the world?

I visited with Broadway Christian Church member Louise Moseley this past week.  She actually remembers her mother not being allowed to vote in this country.  Not too many of you can say that.  How blessed we are to live in a time and place where our work can be more than the job we have, more than the means of making a living.

Yet, here is an amazing thing.  Some recent studies show that 90 to 95 percent of all North Americans report they hate their work.  Good gracious!  The highest incidents of heart attacks, reportedly in this country, happen between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Monday mornings.  Isn’t that interesting?

Now challenging work is not bad, as everyone here knows.  Challenging work can bring about adventure, and growth, and discovery, and meaning.  But the Bible also talks about work being a curse.  When work is considered a curse, here’s how you can know it is a curse.  It exploits.  It belittles.  It dehumanizes.  It drains.  It denies a person a life outside of that dimension, even when they are at home.

The truth is, folks, many of us spend the majority of our waking hours working, whether we’re paid for it or not.  We are working.  Our students are not wrong in thinking that any occupational choice they make is, in fact, going to have serious ramifications about the quality of life they are going to have and experience regardless of the income bracket they might be in and the money they may earn.

My wife, Jan, who is an early-childhood specialist in a field not known for its high income bracket, works every bit as hard and just as many hours as our local brain surgeons, our bank presidents, and our legal beagles.

People work, and they work a lot.  Sometimes they get paid for it, and sometimes they don’t.  But there is a bigger issue for us than just what we do to make a living.  The bigger issue for us, as Christians, is something that goes beyond, “What is it I’m going to do to make living?”  It goes beyond, “What am I going to do to pay the bills?”  It goes beyond, “What am I going to do to be able to live the lifestyle that I fantasize about?”  It goes beyond, “Am I going to go back to school to get an additional degree, or am I going to get next to a good library and go on-line?”  It goes beyond, “Am I going to college or straight into the workforce?”  It goes beyond, “Am I going to keep this job I presently have, or am I going to stay home and raise my kids?”

We keep hearing these words, “occupation,” “job,” “work,” “careers,” “professions,” “bread winners,” “income,” “productivity.”  All of those things are real, but for the Christian community – for those of us who follow Christ – there is a bigger issue.   That bigger issue is our “calling.”  Why?  Why were we put here on this earth?  What does God expect us to do?  What am I supposed to be doing with my life?

The word the Church uses to talk about this issue that is evidently affecting 90 to 95 percent of this culture’s people is the word “vocation.”  My vocare.  My calling.

There’s an old Danish proverb that goes like this:  “What you are is God’s gift to you.  What you do with yourself is your gift to God.”

Let’s take it from the top.  Biblical faith, Christian faith believes that God created us.  And that God, in creating us, shaped us for a purpose.  We have a reason for being here.  Most of us believe that.  Therefore, since we have a reason for being here, God expects us to make the most of what we have been given.  Indeed, God doesn’t want us to worry about the gifts we don’t have. 

That is good news for me, because I really don’t have to worry about making money like Oprah.  I just don’t have to worry about that.  I don’t have to worry about imagining the future like Bill Gates.  I don’t have to worry about playing basketball like Michael Jordan.  I don’t have to worry about being a TV star like Dr. McDreamy.  You guys don’t watch TV.  I’m figuring that out right here.  You don’t have to be able to write like Henri Nouwen.  You don’t have to be able to preach like Fred Craddock.  Indeed, God wants you and me to focus on the talents God has given just to us individually. 

Folks, biblical faith says the best use of your life is to serve God with the gifts you have been given.  In order to do that, of course, we have to discover what those are.  We have a lot of people in our culture today who are trying to figure out what that is.  You have to be able to name it.  You have to be able to accept it.  You have to be able to use and develop it.  But most importantly, and this is the one they always leave out, you have to learn to enjoy it.  That’s what God wants us to do with the gifts that God has given us.  People say, “Now, that’s great, but where do you start?”

You begin with assessing.  You begin by taking a long, long look at what you are good at.  Don’t worry about what you’re not good at.  Let’s focus on the things we are good at.  In short, we have to make a list.  Sit down, somewhere, without your phone, and without your friends, and without your computer, and without your TV and your I-pod, and everything else.  Some place quiet.  Just sit with a pad of paper and make a list that goes like this: “I am really good at… this and this and this.”  “Time flies when I find myself doing… this and this and this.”  “I can’t wait to get up in the morning and go do… this and this.”  I never look at the clock when I am doing… this and this.”  “I get excited, wound up, energized when I am doing… this and this.”

Number One:  Make a list.

Now, in case you think I am just talking to Marley and our other high school graduates… No!  No!   This is not about high school graduates.  This is about all of us, because, you see, all of us have been given gifts.   All of us have this life.  All of us are called upon to use the gifts we have been given for God’s purposes.

Number One:  Make a list.  Number Two:  Ask other people their opinion about your list.

Now you have to be careful here, because you have to tell them, “I’m not fishing for compliments.  I really want the truth.”  Be careful when you say that.   Ask some people who are your friends.  Ask some people who aren’t your friends.  Ask some people, “What do you think of my list?” 

I’ll tell you why.  This is one of the things we know.  Our gifts, our talents, our natural abilities are always confirmed by others.  Always!  So if you think you have gifts as a singer, or a writer, or a computer programmer, or a scientist, or a researcher, or a teacher, or a care giver, and no one else agrees, guess what?  If you think your gift is in selling, and nobody is buying, guess what?  If you think you have a gift of leadership, and you look over your shoulder and there is no one there, guess what? 

The key, folks, is your gifts.  What you are is God’s gift to you.

Number One:  Make a list.  Number Two:  Ask for feedback.  Ask people’s opinion.  Number Three:  I think this is the most important one.  Experiment.

The scholars say the best way to discover, to be able to name, to affirm, to accept your gifts, your abilities, your talents is to experiment.  How are you going to know if you are any good at anything if you have never done it?  If you’ve never tried it?  Experiment.  Try stuff.  Try doing some of the things you have never done before.  This, again, is not just for young folks.  I don’t care how old you are.  I hope you never stop experimenting.

Marilyn McCreary, in this congregation, didn’t discover the joy of running and fitness until she was retired.  (I didn’t ask permission to say this, but…)  My goodness!  This has made such a change in that woman’s life.

Dave Gibbons, a member of this church, didn’t discover his passion for Christian care giving until after a 20-year career as an attorney in this town.

Louise Hassinger didn’t discover the gift she has in health care until she visited Afghanistan, where she is this very hour, where she is finding a whole new area of service in her life.

Martha Jolly, a member of this church, didn’t have a clue what a seminary education could do until she found herself knee-deep leading the camp and conference ministry program of the Area of this Church.

Folks, you have dozens of hidden abilities, and talents, and gifts that you don’t even know you have, because you haven’t tried them out.  You’re not going to find them out until you just start trying them out.  Try.  Try.  Try teaching.  Try singing.  Try picking up an instrument and seeing what happens.  Try leading.  Try creating something.  Pick up a tool.  Pick up a new piece of technology.  Open a book, a program, an on-line account.  Take a course.  Shadow someone who is doing some of the things you find fascinating.  Visit with some people who might give you an opportunity just to try out at your level something they already know how to do.

I read an article in “The New Yorker” this week.  Pete Sieger, an amazing guy.  This guy was a student at Harvard when one day he picked up a banjo.  He got into it.  He followed something in his heart and soul that he just couldn’t put down.  He started writing music.  He became a legendary folk singer in our country with an irrepressible message about peace and a huge belief in the Constitution of this country that says, “All people are created equal.”  He went out and created an incredible career.  It was phenomenal.

Folks, we discover our gifts by trying them out.  If it doesn’t work, OK.  It is not a failure.  It is just an experiment.  Stay with it.   Try it.  That’s how you’re going to find out what you are good at.

Number One:  Make a list.  Number Two:  Get feedback.  Number Three:  Experiment.

Here’s the big one.  Number Four:  Accept, enjoy the gifts, the talents that God has given you.  Enjoy them.  God wants you to enjoy the gifts God gives you.  Instead of trying to develop gifts you don’t have, focus on accepting the ones you do have. 

St. Paul put it this way.  He was talking to somebody who said, “Why in the world did God make me the way I’m made?”  Paul said, “Since when does the potter have to give you an answer for that question?  Since when does the potter who shaped you, that formed you, have to give you an answer for why you are the way you are?  God takes the lump of clay and God infuses it with the gifts God chooses.  Our job is to receive them, to accept them, and to enjoy them” (Romans 9:20).

Folks, the happy people I know are the people who have accepted, who know, and who celebrate the gifts that have been given to them.   There’s not another person, of course, in the world who is like you.   That means you and I have limitations.  We have boundaries.  Nobody is good at everything.  Nobody does it all.  Nobody can please everyone.  So, if that’s your problem, if you are stuck on that, get over it.  Just get over it.  

Focus on what God has given you and what God is calling you to do with what God has given you.  St. Paul says, “Our goal is to stay within the boundaries, the limits, of what God has planned for us” (II Corinthians 10).

It’s just like running a race.  My beloved, Jan, for her sixtieth birthday, has decided she wants to do a marathon.  Yea, that was my response.  I can tell you, she’s not here right now, but she’s going to be 60 this year.  She’s planning on doing a marathon.  She’s training for it right now.  She and her friend Martha go out.  I think they are going to walk this marathon.  Thank goodness.  I told them, first of all, “This is not a we deal.”  I’m going to take the cab.  I promised them I will see at the finish line.  They are going to walk 26 miles in Portland, Oregon in October.  They are training right now.  What they have to keep in mind is that they don’t have to be envious of that runner or walker that is next to them.  That’s not the name of the game.  The name of the game is running the race they have been given with the talents and abilities they have and to do the best they can.

I think that is the key to enjoying your vocation.  It is a joy, I believe, that God wants you to have in your life.

Galatians 4:6 says: “Each one should test their abilities and then you will enjoy the personal satisfaction of having done your work well, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.”

Folks, life is going to try to steal some things from you.  One of the things it is going to try to steal from you is the joy of your vocation, the joy of your calling.  If you’re not experiencing joy right now, I can pretty much guarantee you that something is stealing it from you in at least two ways. 

1:  You are going to get tempted.  You are going to get tempted to compare what you are doing with your life with what everybody else is doing with theirs.  That will kill you. 

2:  You will be tempted to conform what you are doing with your life with the expectations that other people have.  Don’t go there.

Both of those things are deadly.  Both of them will try to rob you of the joy of your vocation.  Instead, I recommend you cultivate, develop, grow, broaden, stay focused on the gifts God has, in fact, given you, and what God expects you to do with them.

Paul told his young friend Timothy these words: “Be sure to use your abilities – the ones God gave you – and put those abilities to good work” (I Timothy 4). 

Over time, you see, you are just going to get better.  You are just going to get better as you do those things.  So don’t go half-baked.  Don’t accept half-baked.  I ask you to stretch, to learn, to focus, to concentrate, to train, to practice, to sharpen, (whatever word works for you) because, “What you are is God’s gift just to you, and what you do with yourself is your gift to God.”  We call that, in the Church, your vocation.  I believe it is the pathway to joy for most of your waking hours and mine.

And we all say together… “Amen.”

Benediction

Author of Life, you have written my story.  You have sent me here for your purposes and enveloped me in your love.  Let me always know whose stamp I bear, that I might deliver a life that is signed and sealed by your almighty hand.  Amen.