Latest / The Wesley Word / [WW] I'm Fine: Finding Your Calling

Transcript

[WW] I'm Fine: Finding Your Calling · The Wesley Word

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Wesley World.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to Wesley Worship.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: This is your first time.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's good to have you here.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: If we haven't met yet, my name is Steve Simono, a campus minister here.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I just want to say we're excited you're here.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: This is our second week in our new series called I'm Fine.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: And you see by the graphic there, we got a sailboat about to go down to the depths of the sea, and Poseidon's going to get them.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: But we sort of began looking last week as this thing that we often sort of mask what's going on and we just say, yeah, I'm fine.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: When really on the inside, we feel like you know we're in the middle of this storm type thing.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: And last week we looked at this idea of self-care, right?
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: And how we take care of ourselves, knowing that storms will come in the midst of our lives, but how might we use our ballastar keel to sort of keep us from tipping all the way over?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we talked about uh making sure you're taking care of your body and your spirit and your soul and also hit on uh mental health and making sure you're taking care of yourself.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: And if you if you need to seek help, make sure you're getting that, um, not being ashamed of that, but make sure you do that so that you can sort of be be whole and get get where you need to be.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: This week we're gonna continue on that, and we're looking at a different question on this idea of I'm fine.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: And some of you, you're probably like, ah, I got this under control.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Others of you, if you're like me in school, you're like, oh my goodness, yes, I have these questions, right?
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: And this this sort of centers around, right?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Some people like think about their future and they're like, I'm fine, I got it all together, right?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing this, I'm going to grad school, I'm getting this job, and it's gonna work out, right?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: But if you were like me, if I someone asked me in in college, like, what do you want to do with your life?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: What does God's call on your life?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: That would like send shivers down my spine, right?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'd be like, I have no idea, right?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so maybe you're there, and maybe you're like, no, I got it all figured out.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe like, Steve, I have no idea, and I don't want to think about it, so please stop.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: If that's the case, just feel free to go back and pray and you'll be good, right?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I I wrestled with that question.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so tonight we're gonna look at this idea of what is what does God have for us?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: What is God's purpose for our life?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: What is our calling in life?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: What is your calling?
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: What is my calling?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you might begin to think about, you know, I'm just curious what you wanted to be when you grew up, right?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: When you grow up.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, maybe you early on had some ideas of what you wanted to do.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: I remember early on, I would dress up in this nice little clip-on tie and I carry my little fake briefcase around, right?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: And Stevie was gonna be a businessman, right?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know where I was gonna be.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't want to be in an office and I'm gonna wear a suit and tie to work every day.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: If I had to wear a suit and tie every day and work in my life now, I'd probably quit, right?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: This is as dressy as I get as a campus minister, and I love it, right?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: At one point in time, I wanted to be a pilot and I wanted to live in like three different cities and have three different penthouses and just live across the nation.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, have like three different girlfriends in each city, and nobody would talk to each other, and it'd be great, right?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: I grew up before social media, so that could actually happen back then, right?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, or this I should have seen coming, right?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: We also played church in my house, even though I didn't really grew up in the church, and I also played like the priest and loved doing communion, right?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: I sort of sort of should have seen that coming right here as a pastor, right?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but this question of what does God want you to do?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Someone asked me that um late in high school, this sort of came to the church and it like rocked my world.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: I sort of flipped out through like senior year of high school for probably the next, I don't know, 10 years, right?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because I was like, I don't know what God want me to do, and what if I choose something that God didn't want me to do, and then all of a sudden I'm in trouble because I didn't do what God wanted me to do.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I it sort of like going through my brain, and even like as I was um prepared to get married and I was engaged to Julie, and we were getting married, definitely getting married, that was not in question, right?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: But I began to think about all these little decisions that happened that led me from Louisiana to Mississippi to Texas to Columbia, uh, up here to Clemson.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, man, what if I'd have taken like one, made one bad choice?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: I would have never ended up with her, and this would have been crazy, right?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: Now I start flipping out on all these things about what God wanted me to do.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but I look at scriptures in the Bible and I would think, man, God, why can't you be like, like, let me be like all these other people and just give me a story?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like, just speak to me and tell me exactly what you want me to do, right?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: Abraham, early on in Genesis, right?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he hears the word of the Lord and he leaves and he follows, right?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: He's 75 years old.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: He goes out.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Later, God promises him and Sarah a child when they're like super old, about 99 years old, right?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: And all this happened because Abraham was willing to follow step by step.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: But Abraham was confronted by God and heard the voice of God to go and do this.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, man, I want some of that.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Let me be Abraham, let me be Sarah.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think about the story of Samuel, whose mother was Hannah and he was living with the priest Eli.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: And three times when he's sleeping at night, right, he hears the voice of the Lord calling him, saying, Samuel, right?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Which he goes and he wakes up his friend Eli and says, Did you need me?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, No, go back to bed.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Third time he comes back once again, and he was like, It might be God, you might want to answer, right?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so Samuel says, Speak, Lord.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: The word of God came to Samuel and said, I'm calling you, this is what I want you to do.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted some of that.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think about the story of Esther, which God is not necessarily in that story, but we see the story of Esther, and once again she has friends around her, and eventually used that famous line, right?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're here for such a time as this.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: But he had this voice constantly in her head saying, Maybe this is what you were called to do.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think about Jonah, right?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Who's like the epitome of what not to do?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: God says, You're gonna go to Nineveh and you're gonna tell this people what I need you to tell them.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And Jonah said, No, thanks, bye.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm leaving, right?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: And heads out to Tarshis and has all these issues with fish and all that kind of stuff, right?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but at least he got the opportunity to say no to what God was asking him to do.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: I was jealous of these people.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: I look at Mary, right?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now, obviously, I did not want to carry the Son of God in my like womb that I do not have, right?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: But at least like she got the opportunity when the angel of the Lord came and said, Hey, this is what's gonna happen.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And she was like, Okay, God, that's your will.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm down with that, right?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: But at least she got the opportunity to flee or to you know to say yes or no.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: The disciples had Jesus walking down the street right there, fishing, right?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to be on Bowman, throwing the frisbee, and Jesus is like, hey, Steve, let's go follow me, right?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted that so bad.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't happen.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Even Paul got some lightning, right?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: He was blind for a little while, had some scales on his eyes, but he had something big and powerful that happened that shaped him.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you were there, but I always wanted God to just like do that.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like, give me some lightning, send something down, let me know what I'm supposed to do with my life.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: I I've told uh story before when I was a chaplain, part of being ordained in Methodist Church, you have to serve as a chaplain uh for at least six months.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: And um I decided I never want to be a chaplain during those six months.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: But um, it was crazy, but they would give you a pager, right?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Back in the day, and what's up, kiddos?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, my pager, and they would be on my hip, and I knew that when that pager would go off, it would tell me what room to go to, um, what floor to go to, what crisis was happening.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: I knew exactly where to go, what to do.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And for the longest time, I was like, God, just give me a little page, shoot me a little text, send me a little email, right?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're there, maybe you're not, but that's where I've always been like, God, I just need to know.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to mess this up, right?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Let me know what happened.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't until seminary at age 27 that I finally got some peace about this because I was seriously worried about messing up.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to make the wrong decision, do something that God didn't want me to do.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like I needed to know exactly what I had to do.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: So at 27 years old, though, I hear, I was reading this story, and God sort of spoke to me through this book by Barbara and Taylor.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of my favorite books.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, give it out to graduating seniors uh from an altar in the world.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: And she talks about how she was struggling with this as well.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: And how she she had done, she was like a grocery bagger, she was a um worked on a farm, she did all these different jobs, but she wanted to know what God wanted to do for her life, right?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: And she had this profound moment where she like says she goes down to the fire escape, right?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: And she she's sitting on the fire escape and she's just praying one night and just praying and praying and praying, like God speak to me, speak to me.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want me to do?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want me to do?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want me to do?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, clear as day.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I wish I had this clear as day moment, right?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: But as clear as day, she hears God say, anything that pleases you.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And she's like, What?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Are you serious?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: And once again, right, she's praying, and God's like, No, anything that pleases you, but belong to me.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Anything that pleases you, but belong to me, right?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, on the one hand, right, you hear this and you're like, wow, God, thanks a lot for nothing, right?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't really give me an answer, you give me a direction.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: But on the other hand, and this is where I finally felt peace, it was freeing.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: And hopefully a burden relieved for it was for for her, for Barbara and Taylor's relief for me as a seminarian still trying to get it right, and knowing that, so the point of that, and when God says do anything that pleases you, right?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like, don't go crazy, right?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: But where is your fire?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: What's your passion, right?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Belong to God, but do anything that pleases you.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Meaning, find your passion, find your energy, find what brings you life, and do that, and knowing that God can use you no matter what you do, right?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: You can't make the wrong decision between which type of engineering you're gonna do.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: It might make your life harder or not, right?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: But God can use you in either one of those spaces.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: If you decide to become a teacher or a nurse or a stay-at-home dad or stay at home mom, God can use you in whatever place that you are at, as long as you are doing something that brings you life and our belonging and abiding to God on that in that sense.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know about you, but that that it took me 10 years of struggle to figure that out.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: And once I did that, it brought me a ton of peace to know that there's not like a bad decision that I can make if I choose the wrong major, if I choose the wrong career right out of school, or choose the wrong career five years after that.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: As long as I'm abiding in God and doing what and being the person God has called me to be as far as living as a disciple of Christ, that what I do is not as important as how I do it, if that makes sense.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Think about in John 13, we see um the one that the the speak, Steve.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: We see the disciple whom Jesus loved, right?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: We see that uh reclining next to Jesus.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: This is on the night which he was to give himself up for us.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about the Doe Communion Liturgy, right?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: And when they're reclining there with Jesus, right?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if you don't know how they ate back in the in the all right, I'm gonna show you why not, right?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: They're reclining in Jesus.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: They would lean, like the tables were real low.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so oftentimes they would just sort of be be chilling right here, right?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: This I'm glad this is what we don't do online church here anymore, right?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: So not on here.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they'd be leaning on their left arm and sort of have their feet tucked around by back this, right?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you were sitting on the right side of Jesus, right, Jesus would be right here, and I'm not gonna say this, but I am like like a half spoon, like well, like spoon of line right here, right?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like you're you're you're close to that.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're on the right side, you're you're right there next to Jesus, right?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: You're close in there, you're leaning in, right?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: And the scripture, if you look at the Greek, it says the one who you know was Jesus loved is right there reclining next to him.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: You could also translate as lean in or being next to the heart or being on his bosom.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you look at the King James Version, it actually says something like the disciple whom Jesus beloved was leaning on Jesus' bosom, was leaning into his heart, right?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: And we don't name who that disciple is that Jesus loves so much.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: We think it might be some different people, we have some different theories, but it's never named in the Gospel of John.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: They don't actually give that disciple a name.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Part of that because maybe there was some humility there, right?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: But I think we can also take that and use that as an unnamed disciple to sort of place us in that spot, right?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: That what Jesus is getting at and what our calling is here is not necessarily a specific major, specific career, but part of our calling, as we think about what Barbara Brown Taylor experienced of do it pleases you but belong to me, is part of our calling is that we're called to lean into Jesus, to try to put our ear close to his heart, to lean into his bosom, so to speak, and to be a person that is leaning in to Christ.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: And if we lean into Christ and try to hear what he's calling us to do, lean into living in the ways in which he is calling us to live, not in specific action, in specific like majors, but a people of love and abounding in grace, then we get closer to what we're called to be.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because later on in that same chapter, after we hear about the disciple whom Jesus loved, leaning into Jesus, Jesus gives the commandment, right?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: He says, I give you this commandment that you love one another.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then John 15, they're still having the same conversation, right?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, I'm the true vine.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: My father is the vine grower.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: Abide in me as I abide in you.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: Again, leaning into Jesus, abiding in God.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: And if you do that, right, you will bear much fruit.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: And if you keep my commandments, right, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments, who's saying, abide in his love, right?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Our vocation, friends, the way of life that we are called to do.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I get, right, you're gonna leave and you're like, see, that wasn't helpful.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe like I still gotta decide what major I want to do or what job I'm gonna take or what internship I'm gonna take.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, you gotta figure that out.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I hope this takes some relief and some burden pressure off you that God's gonna get onto if you decide to take an internship in Tennessee rather than Texas, right?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: That wherever it is that you are, God can use you as long as you are leaning into Christ.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: And as long as your goal in life is to bear fruit.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that fruit that we bear is by loving God and loving our neighbor.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it sounds simple, but that is the message that God, at the very utmost bottom, bottom line thing, that is who we're called to be, to be a people who bear fruit.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: First Corinthians 10, 31.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: We see whatever you do, do it for the glory of God, right?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you are doing a co-op, right, you do that for the glory of God.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you are out there ruined, you do that for the glory of God.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you're throwing a frisbee around, you're doing that for the glory of God.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you're a camp counselor, you bear fruit and you do what you need to do during that time to bear fruit and to give glory to God.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is that you do in all circumstances, all the things that you do, we are called to give glory to God by leaning into God, leaning into Christ, so that we can then bear fruit by loving others and loving God.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Barbara Taylor mentions that every interaction that we have with another human being is an opportunity to both lean into Christ and to bear fruit.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Just every opportunity that you have when you come into with an individual, every single interaction, you have the opportunity to either make things better or to make things worse.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: You have the opportunity to help bear good fruit in their lives, or the opportunity to bear fruit that is not so so good.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: What is it that we're going to do, right?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so I it sounds like maybe a simple message, but it's one that took me a long time to figure out.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I wish someone would have told me this when I was in school.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to leave that with you and hope to bring you some some burden there, right?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Or relieve some burden, and that is not necessarily what you decide to do, but how you do it.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: And know that God will be pleased with you if you simply live a life that is bearing fruit, fruit that lasts, fruit of love, right?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: And with that though, I'll wrap up on this and I'll I'll quit talking.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um like make sure though that you find something that brings you life as you think about what is your calling or what you want to do with your life.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Find something that brings you life.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: As a pastor, right?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: Some people are always asking me, like, how'd you end up becoming a pastor?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I don't know.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: I thought pastors were weirdos.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be a pastor.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: I guess I'm a weirdo, that's why I'm here, right?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but like I didn't know what I wanted to do, right?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: I had some people on the line along the way that were like, hey, you should maybe do this.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, yeah, you're crazy, that's not gonna happen.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: But I began to do devotions on mission trips with Wesley, and I was like, wow, this like lights a fire in me, right?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: I got to speak at at Evensong back then.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: We had that, um, we didn't have even time.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, man, this was cool.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: This like filled me up.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: And the more I did those things that pastors do, the more I felt alive inside.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was this long winding road, but eventually I was like, okay, this is what I need to do because I found that's what gave me the most life.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so I encourage you to think about what is it that gives you life and to go and to do that, right?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: But also know this sometimes what your vocation is, what your real calling is, what gives you life is something that has in no way will ever pay the bills, right?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, I want to do this, and you're like, well, okay, that's fine.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: You can live on the street, but you're not gonna be, you know.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes the reality is we just gotta get a job, right?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you just gotta pay the bills.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: But you also know if you're just doing the same like nine to five type thing and you just feel like it's like not feeding you, right?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: There are other ways to live that out, right?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes your true calling, your true vocation, what is it that brings you life, might be something that you volunteer for on the weekends, might be something that you volunteer for in the evening time.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got like 12 youth counselors here at the church that do an incredible job.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: That we've got like they're like PTs during the week, they work on campus, they do all these different things, but part of their vocation, part of their calling, part of what gives them life is doing those things on Sunday nights.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so I invite you to think about as you go through and think about how you lean into Christ, how you bear fruit.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Also ask that question what brings you life?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: What sets you on fire?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: What gets that thing going in the in the in the pit of your of your stomach, right?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: And follow that, chase after that.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes that is sort of that voice of God that is speaking and saying, Yeah, do more of that.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's why you're on fire.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: So hopefully that's good news.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully that's a burden relieving.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe for like see if I'm more confused than ever.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, but for me, it's very simple.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Lean into Christ and bear fruit, and no matter what you're doing, remember that the how is what matters as we seek to be the people that Christ has called us to be.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Let us pray.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Holy gracious God, we give you thanks and praise for this night, for this chance to come and to share a meal around the table, to enjoy some killer nachos, to lift up our voice and song and praise to you, to lift up our hearts in prayer.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: God, we pray that as we uh wrestle with what are we to do with our lives.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: God, some of us are wrestling with what major to choose or to stick with.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: We're trying to decide which job to go into, we're trying to think about what's next.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: And God, all those things are exciting and there's doors abound, and we just pray, God, that you would give us the courage to just put one foot in front of the other.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: And to remember that you won't be disappointed in what we choose as long as we abide in you and as long as we seek to bear fruit wherever it is that we are planted.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you for those opportunities, O Lord.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: We give you thanks that you are with us every single step of the way.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: We pray, O God, that your presence will be felt, and as we make decisions and seek to be the people that you've called us to be, that you would grant us peace for the journey.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: We ask all this in Christ's name.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: The Wesley Word is a production of the Clemson Wesley Foundation.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Clemson Wesley, check out our website or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, get out there and love your neighbor.