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7: Where Is God Calling You to Go? · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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isn't just a podcast, it's also an online
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course.
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Check it out at findinggodatwork.org.
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Our current series is Meaningful Work, Calling, Formation,
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Service, and Love.
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As we think about calling, often we're asking
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the question, what is God calling me to
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do?
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That's a good question.
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I've pushed back against it a little bit
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by suggesting it's not the only question we
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can ask to clarify the call of God
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on our lives.
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So a couple episodes ago, I asked the
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question, who is God calling me to become?
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That sense of who we are as people,
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our character, our process of becoming more like
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Jesus by God's grace over time is even
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more foundational and more important than the specific
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projects or tasks that God might call us
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to.
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Well, in this episode, I want to throw
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another question in the hopper, and that's this,
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where is God calling me to go?
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Have you ever had that sense of being
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called to a specific geographic place, to a
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specific community?
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Even if you haven't had that specific call,
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it's something that when we turn to scripture,
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we see all over the place.
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God loves to call people from one place
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to go to another place.
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This is something he's in the habit of
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doing.
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Just think about how his whole covenant relationship
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with Israel got kicked off.
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This is Genesis chapter 12.
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Who did God call Abraham and Sarah?
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What did he call them to do to
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change places?
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Let me read here.
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Verse one, the Lord had said to Abram,
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go from your country, your people, and your
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father's household to the land I will show
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you.
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And that movement from Ur, the land of
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Ur, where Abram grew up, to what we
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now call the promised land, that was incredibly
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important to the purposes of God, that change
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of location.
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One thing that you might not have thought
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about is that it really wasn't a change
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of vocation in the sense of what Abram
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was doing.
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What was he doing in Ur?
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He was doing the kind of nomadic herdsman,
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ancient Near Eastern life.
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What did he do in the promised land?
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He did the ancient Near Eastern nomadic herdsman
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life.
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He did the same thing in both places.
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God blessed him.
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He did it more abundantly in the promised
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land.
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But it really wasn't a change of what,
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it was a change of where.
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And yet that change of where was the
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catalyst for God saving action for the whole
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world.
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So when you're at a juncture and you're
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thinking about what's next in your career, it
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might even be that the where matters more
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than the what.
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The what might stay the same even, but
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the where changing is important to the purposes
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of God.
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This is a pattern that we see continuing
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throughout the scripture.
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So again, the Israelites, they end up leaving
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the promised land and going to Egypt in
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the generation of Jacob and Joseph.
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Then they have to go back to the
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promised land under Moses' leadership.
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Then they're eventually exiled.
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We're going to come back to that exile
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chapter.
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But then in the New Testament, God starts
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sending people all over the place.
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So let's go to one example of this.
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Acts chapter 13.
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This is in the early Christian community at
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Antioch, starting in verse 2.
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While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting,
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the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me
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Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which
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I have called them.
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So after they had fasted and prayed, they
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placed their hands on them and sent them
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off.
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Okay, here we see that God is giving
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both a new what and a new where,
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or several new where's to Paul and Barnabas,
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right?
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So it's a new what.
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They had been at Antioch kind of teaching,
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being elders in the church.
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Now they're going to be missionaries traveling throughout
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the ancient Mediterranean world in order to proclaim
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the good news of Jesus to people who
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have not yet heard it.
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And yet also because they're going throughout the
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Mediterranean world, it's a new where.
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It's several new where's.
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They go to different cities and start churches
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all over the place, all around the Mediterranean
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Sea.
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And again, this was part of the movement
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of God to launch the church, the community
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of Jesus Christ, including both Jews and Gentiles
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in a way that's borne fruit for centuries
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and generations afterwards.
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So this sensitivity that this community at Antioch
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had to realize, oh, God's calling Barnabas and
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he's calling Paul to go somewhere different.
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That was incredibly important for God's purposes.
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So this is something that we don't want
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to miss.
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We don't want to miss when God is
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calling us to go to a new place.
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Okay.
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At the same time, we might actually already
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be in the place where God is calling
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us to go, so to speak.
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And so we could ask the question like
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this, is God calling me to stay?
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And if you happen to listen to our
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last episode, my interview with my childhood friend,
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Zach Wilson, this was kind of where he
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found himself.
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He was already in the city of Kalamazoo.
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He was going on these prayer walks during
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the pandemic, and he just had this stirring
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from the Lord for the city he was
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already in.
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He was called by God not to leave
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Kalamazoo for somewhere else, but to stay in
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Kalamazoo and to work for the benefit of
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Kalamazoo.
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And what I love about what Zach shared
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in that episode is how much he thinks
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about his work and the significance of his
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life, not just in terms of himself as
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an individual, but in terms of his city
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as a community.
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He's not just asking, oh, what's next for
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me in my career so that I can
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get a raise or accomplish X, Y, or
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Z.
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He's asking what does Kalamazoo need as a
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city and how can I help catalyze that?
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How can I help gather other young professionals
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to invest in the future of Kalamazoo so
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that everybody flourishes?
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You can see how that attitude of looking
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at the community and what the community needs
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is rooted in love of neighbor for Zach.
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And so I think often that's a helpful
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paradigm for us too.
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When we're at a juncture in our career,
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we want to push back against an overly
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individualistic way of thinking about our careers.
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Our tendency in the United States and contemporary
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Western culture is to think, I'm going to
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get a degree, and then I'm going to
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get a job, and I'm going to get
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the next job, and I'm going to climb
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the corporate ladder.
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And the meaning of my career is based
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on what I achieve as I climb that
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ladder, even if I'm moving cities or moving
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locations as I go, rather than a community
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-based sense of meaning where it's, ah, I
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derive meaning by being rooted in this community
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and making a difference in this community.
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The meaning of my work is not just
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what I individually achieve.
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It's what I contribute here in this embodied
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geographic location.
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Okay, now, that either or can be, it
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could sound like, oh, so is it always
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bad to move locations for a job?
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Is that somehow unchristian?
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That's not what I mean to say.
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What I mean is that we need to
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push back against the assumptions of our culture.
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Rather than assuming that our career decisions should
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always be driven by what is the next
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step for me as an individual, we need
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to add into the hopper, add into the
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equation, into the discernment, the discernment soup that
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we're mixing as one of the key ingredients.
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Where is God calling me to go?
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Or is God calling me to stay?
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That might be just as significant or more
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significant for God's purposes in our generation as
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the specific work we're doing.
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So we shouldn't just fall into what's the
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normal cultural pattern.
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That being said, there may be times when
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God does call us to change locations for
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a job where a new where is actually
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exactly the right thing that God has for
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us.
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Okay, so we have these paradigms in scripture
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of God calling people to go to specific
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places.
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We want to be practicing discernment in community
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to ask when we're at a decision juncture,
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is there a specific where God is calling
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me to go?
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But in the meantime, we always already are
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where we are.
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We're already somewhere.
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And that is also a place where we
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can honor God.
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So again, we can ask the question, is
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God calling me to stay?
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But until we go, we're there.
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And so it's sort of our actually our
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default option to stay, to be where we
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are.
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And like I said, I want to go
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back to the exile part of Israel's story
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because there's this scriptural paradigm for being where
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you are.
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Again, exile was not a fun chapter in
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the story of Israel.
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They were in their own land.
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And then the Babylonians came, destroyed Jerusalem, took
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exiles over to the empire of Babylon, where
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they were strangers.
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They were immigrants.
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They didn't have cultural influence and power.
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But that's where they were.
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And what is the word of the Lord
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to them in that situation?
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This is from Jeremiah chapter 29, starting in
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verse four.
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So if you're feeling that sense of like
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kind of being out of sync, out of
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place, you shouldn't immediately suppose that that means
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you're supposed to be somewhere else.
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The Israelites certainly felt out of sync and
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out of place when they were in exile.
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But God's word to them in that moment
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was, stay where you are, put down roots,
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have families, seek the welfare of the city
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where I have sent you.
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And so if we discern that our call
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from God is to stay, if we've gotten
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to that point of discernment where our call
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is to stay where we are, we should
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think like Zach Wilson.
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We should think, what does my community need?
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Not just what's my next achievement point in
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my career, but what does the community here
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need?
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Where is their need here?
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Where is their injustice here?
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Where is their ignorance of the good news
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of Jesus Christ here?
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Where is their opportunity here to ameliorate those
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needs, to work for justice, to proclaim the
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good news, to serve those who are disenfranchised
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or who are abused?
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In any community, if you ask that question,
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what are the needs here?
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And you ask it with an open heart,
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you will see lots of needs.
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There's no need-free community.
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Even communities that might seem like they don't
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have as much immediate socioeconomic need.
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If you ask the question, what does this
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place need?
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God will open your eyes.
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Okay, so I've kind of offered these two
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paradigms, right?
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Where is God calling me to go?
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Or is God calling me to stay?
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And kind of to give us one more
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angle on this, I want to talk about
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the monastic virtue of stability.
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So this would, again, be on the stay
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side.
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Again, we can discern that God may call
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us to go.
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But if he's calling us to stay, I
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think we can lean in to this specific
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Christian tradition of the monastic virtue of stability.
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This is something that comes out of the
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Benedictine tradition.
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So Saint Benedict of Nursia, he was in
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Italy in like the five and six hundreds,
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and he founded a community called Monte Cassino.
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It was a monastery.
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And he was kind of a reformer within
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the monastic movement.
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So the Christian monastic movement had earlier roots
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in the early centuries in the desert, where
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men and women would go and would take
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vows often of poverty, chastity, and obedience, kind
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of committing themselves to a life of celibacy
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and a life of prayer and a life
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of serving others within a specific community.
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What had happened in Benedict's time is that
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people were beginning to abuse and take advantage
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of this system.
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And so he talks about a group of
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folks called the gyrovigs, or literally circle wanderers.
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And these were monks who essentially started to
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mooch off of multiple monasteries.
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They realized, ah, if you go to a
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monastery for a few days, they welcome you
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as a guest.
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They put you up.
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They feed you.
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You don't really have to do very much.
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And if you just keep doing that, it's
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sort of like an infinite Airbnb 100%
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off coupon.
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I just keep switching monasteries, and I never
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really have to put down roots or do
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much work.
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So this is what Saint Benedict has to
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say about these individuals.
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He says, and this is in his Rule
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of Saint Benedict, his classic text.
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Gyrovigs spend their whole lives tramping from province
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to province, staying as guests in different monasteries
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for three or four days at a time,
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always on the move with no stability.
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They indulge their own wills and succumb to
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the allurements of gluttony.
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Of the miserable conduct of all such men,
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it is better to be silent than to
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speak.
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Really harsh language from Benedict.
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But what's he attacking here?
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He's attacking an individualistic way of thinking that's
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more focused on how do I get what's
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in it for me than thinking about how
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you give to the community.
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So here's a question I want to ask.
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And again, it is a question.
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It's not an answer.
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It's a question.
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But are you a careerist gyrovig?
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Are you a circle wanderer in your career?
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Do you think about your career moves in
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terms of individualistically what's in it for me,
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rather than thinking about where you can put
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down roots to benefit the community?
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Now, this might be a little counterintuitive again.
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But one of those things that we can
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see in the research is that people who
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stick around and have long-term tenure at
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a certain organization, they actually add more value
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than other folks, all other things being equal,
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right?
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So there might be other things that vary.
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Being tenured doesn't make you the best just
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by itself.
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But if you're similarly qualified to someone else,
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and you've been around for 10 years rather
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than two years, you're actually able to add
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a lot more value if you've been around
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for 10 years.
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This is a study that was published from
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researchers at the Workforce Sciences Institute.
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It says, traditional forms of employment, that is
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businesses with employees who build tenure, are competitively
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advantaged relative to organizations that opt for alternatives
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such as contract, gig, and platform workers.
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These organizations miss out on the business value
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that tenure and longevity with an employer bring.
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Okay, what does that mean?
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That means that one way that you can
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actually accomplish more meaningful work in the long
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term, in your career, is by staying in
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one place.
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Now, this is counter to often what's economic
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wisdom in our times, because you may actually
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earn more money if you hop around, right?
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Because you can negotiate a raise more easily
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when you switch than when you stay sometimes.
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But think about your work, not just in
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terms of what's in it for you, but
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in terms of what you're contributing to the
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mission of your organization.
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Could there be a kind of monastic virtue
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of stability for you, like in the Benedictine
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tradition of staying where you are, thinking about
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your work in terms of the mission of
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your organization and the geographic community in which
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you're placed as a way to love your
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neighbor as yourself by seeking the welfare of
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the city that you're in?
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Again, this isn't necessarily an answer.
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It's a question.
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But I think that as disciples of Jesus,
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we should have a bias toward stability.
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For the Benedictine monks, they had to take
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a vow of stability.
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They had to promise to stay at the
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monastery and not leave, to stay in one
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place for the rest of their lives.
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We may not have to do that.
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But if we have a bias towards stability,
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if we say, okay, wherever I am, I'm
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going to put down roots as best I
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can and love my neighbor as best I
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can and think about the community, not just
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myself, as best I can.
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I think we're going to realize a lot
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more fruit than if we have that more
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individualistic, self-centered way of thinking.
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As we're asking questions, let's ask, where is
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God calling me to go?
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And is God calling me to stay?
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Lord Jesus, thank you that you travel with
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us, that you send us and you're with
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us when we're called to stay and to
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serve the city we're in.
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Give us that wisdom and discernment to listen
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for your voice and to go wherever you
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would have us go, even if it's right
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where we already are.
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Jesus, do your work in us as we
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do our work with you.
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