“If the chasm is bridged, God must bridge it. If we are to desire the highest good, the highest good must come down and draw us so that it may become a reality we desire. From this perspective, there is no merit in either seeking or finding. All is grace. The secret of seeking is not in our human ascent to God, but in God’s descent to us. We start searching, but we end up being discovered.“
~ Os Guinness
The nature of my job takes me all around the country to speak to large groups of people who are basically looking for their calling. Some may disguise their reasons by saying they are looking to earn more money, get out of the rat race, or fill their time with an income-producing activity. They are basically seeking better means to a more meaningful life. They are grappling with the universal question, “What am I meant to do?”
I think all humans are seekers, and I think every single person is sought explicitly by God. Yet not every person understands or identifies with the “Caller.” You can see this in the way we desperately search to identify and classify what scientifically, biologically, and psychologically makes us tick. We want to know which row, category, or percentage we fall into. Yet, in defining this and lumping ourselves into profiles that rarely, if ever, express our sheer God-given independence, uniqueness, and significance, we lose sight of God’s calling and our ability to react to it.
In modern society, we believe we’re either constrained to be by society’s dictation, chosen to be by sheer will-power, or constituted to be by our upbringing… in each case, we allow little room for God’s role. I believe, as Os Guinness states, we are not constrained, but called; we are not dictating the calling, but responding to it, and we are not predetermined to it, but free to choose it. It’s a pretty awesome gift when you look at it that way!
