The “Call”

Did you ever get the “call”?

In the Mission Impossible franchise, agents receive their instructions from common everyday items delivered to them.  My favorite and the one I remember the most was a tape recorder.  The agent would queue the recording, listen, and then decide.  Each message ended with: “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is . . .”  Then the message would destroy itself within five seconds.  At that point the agent had received the “call”.

 

In the Matrix science fiction trilogy, the main character (Neo) receives his call from a cell phone that he receives.  The phone connects him to an individual who offers him the opportunity to learn more about the Matrix.  Later he is confronted by the caller and given the choice to live life as he is living it (the blue pill) or learning about the Matrix (red pill).  He chooses by picking the pill that represents his choice.  At this point Neo has received the ”call”.

 

In the Old Testament Moses receives the call one day while he is out tending to the sheep herd.  He stumbles upon a burning bush that talks to him.  The voice wants Moses to pick up his staff and become the leader of God’s exiled people in Egypt . . . to lead them to a Promised Land.  Of course, Moses has a ton of questions for the voice and wants proof that the voice is who it says it is.  In the end, the choice is given to Moses.  Thus he receives his “call”.

 

In the Gospels—well at least a couple of them—Jesus receives his call and confirms it by going and getting baptized.  God rubber stamps the invitation with a heavenly chorus and a descending dove from the heavens.  Then the Jesus struggles with the “mission” as he heads out into the wilderness to struggle for forty days and nights.  He comes out of the wilderness accepting his “call”.

 

In Nikos Kazantzakis’ book, The Last Temptation of Christ, the “call” is a little more dramatic.  The book opens with a dream sequence with Jesus running through the darkness and there is the sound of footsteps pursuing him.  Jesus runs, but the footsteps continue to gain.  Eventually he is overtaken . . . he has received his “call”.

 

In the Epistles, the Apostle Paul gets knocked off his ass—figuratively and literally.  Being a persecutor of Christians, Saul is on the way to Damascus to do a little prosecuting.  As he is riding, he is blinded by a brilliant light and falls to the ground.  A voice speaks to him, confronts him, and offers an invitation to him . . . a “call”.  As the story goes, he is cared for as he regains his sight and starts his ministry.

 

A “call” is a request or demand . . . an offer.  When talking about faith, for those who engage in ministry, a “call” is that moment in one’s life when it becomes clear that God is asking that person to serve in some sort of service.  Having retired from the active ministry as an ordained clergy, I can vouch that knowing and understanding one’s “call” is a prevalent topic for those who profess faith.  When it comes to faith, a “call” is important stuff.

 

Jed, like his father, was a farmer.  One day he is out plowing his fields when he looks up to the sky and notices that the clouds looked like two letters . . . a “P” and a “C”.  This struck him peculiarly and convinced himself that it was a message from God.  The message?  To “preach Christ”.  Feeling that this was a “call” from God to go into the ministry, Jed sold the farm, enrolled in seminary, and began his studies to become a minister preaching Christ.

 

Seminary was tough, but he stuck it out.  At the end of the first year, he was called into the office of the seminary’s dean.  His grades were not good.  After being welcomed by the dean, the dean asked Jed how he ended up in seminary.  Of course, Jed explained his “call” from God while he was out plowing his fields.  The dean listened and then thought.

 

“Jed,” said the dean, “I have no doubt that God spoke to you.  But I think you misinterpreted the message.  Where you thought those letters of “P” and “C” were telling you to “preach Christ”, did you ever think that maybe God was trying to tell you to “plant corn”?

 

I appreciate Joseph Campbell.  I was exposed to Campbell from watching Bill Moyer’s PBS documentary on the man in 1987.  Campbell made a lot of sense to me especially when he talked about people finding their purpose or meaning in life.  He called it their “bliss”.  I would say it is one’s “call”.  He stated that it was a journey of a lifetime. 

 

“Follow your bliss.

If you do follow your bliss,

you put yourself on a kind of track

that has been there all the while waiting for you,

and the life you ought to be living

is the one you are living.

When you can see that,

you begin to meet people

who are in the field of your bliss,

and they open the doors to you.

I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid,

and doors will open

where you didn’t know they were going to be.

If you follow your bliss,

doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.”

(Joseph Campbell)

 

I believe that God or Creator or that Higher Power calls all of us to a purpose.  That purpose is to discover who you are and to be the best “you” that “you” can be.  To discover your bliss . . . your “calling”.  And a big part of that calling is to love . . . to love yourself . . . to love others.  The good ol’ Golden Rule to “love and you would want to be loved.”  If we could learn to accept ourselves as we have been created . . . to love ourselves, well we would be on the road to heavenly kingdom on earth that so many religions speak about.  Campbell says it this way: “We’re not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves.  But in doing that you save the world.  The influence of a vital person vitalizes.”

 

So, we all have a “call”.  Some of us may get that call in some spectacular way like on Moses, Jesus, or Paul.  We might get it through some creative way like Mission Impossible or the Matrix.  It is different for each of us because none of us were created the same.  Whatever the case, we all have a “call”.

 

As much as I wanted a spectacular “call” like Moses, Jesus, or Paul . . . it never happened.  I had no burning bush that spoke to me, though several times in my life I have almost burnt down our house’s deck when the grill caught fire.  It was spectacular, but the only voice I heard was my frantic swearing at my stupidity.  Nor did the heaven open, heavenly choirs sing, or doves descend at my baptism . . . I just got soaked.  I’ve never been blinded by the light and knocked off my ass . . . been knocked on it, but never off it.  I think at my age it ain’t going to happen.  Nope, with perfect 20/20 hindsight I have come to the conclusion that my “call” has been more subtle and a life-long journey.  It has not been a revelatory epiphany.  It has been more of a “oh, that makes sense” sort of adventure.  The process or journey has been the “call”.  It has always been there; I just haven’t always been listening.

 

I think that we humans have a tendency to get hung up on “terms” and only associating those terms with parts of life.  For example, “ministry”.  Granted most people understand “ministry” to be a religious idea or practice . . . and, it is.  It is when one grounds it in terms of “call”.  Remember I said that I believe all of us have a call from whatever you want to name your Higher Power or God.  That “call” is living one’s life to best the best that we have been created to be.  In that way, the actual living of our lives becomes “ministry” . . . the way we treat ourselves, the way we treat others, the striving for the best for every of the Creator’s creations.  Living life is “ministry” and how we live it is our “call”.

 

In my lifetime I do not feel that I received a particular “call” . . . especially when it comes to the fact that I spent over 40 years of my life as a minister.  Looking back with perfect 20/20 hindsight, I cannot find a moment or moments in which I had an earth-shaking epiphany from the Holy calling me to come and serve.  I always point back to that time in elementary school in which I had to write a paper about three things I wanted to be when I grew up.  The first two things were a piece of cake is choosing—a career in the Air Force and a special education teacher.  The third one was a stumper.  Finally, my mother told me to put the first thing that came to my mind.  Where “minister” came from, I do not know, but that is what I put down on that paper.  It made for a good story.

 

All my life has revolved around people and the relationships I had and have with them.  Whether it was in the ministry, working at a university, being a mental health counselor, parent, or spouse . . . it was people and relationships that formed my path through life.  Ministry was a good platform, but so are all the aspects of my life.  It came down to how I related to others and myself . . . to love myself and others as I love myself.  The career, job, or ministry is just the tool for me to accomplish this “call”.  Though the tools might have changed over the years, the purpose never has . . . love.    

We all receive a “call”.  Just as unique as we are created, odds are that our “calls” are too.  But we received it.  As I continue to understand my “call”, I am continually amazed that it is affirmed through the love that I continue to discover from myself and others.  That is the bottom line . . . love.  The Creator calls us to love . . . always to love. It is the foundation of all religions . . . foundation of life and everything we do.  As the Beatles sang, “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”  Sounds like a good way to live life.  Sounds like a “call” to me . . . plus it never self-destructs . . . not in five seconds . . . never.

 

Doing Whatcha Gotta Do

McMullen Hall is the administrative building on the campus of Montana State University Billings.  It is where all the major and important decisions about the university are made, thus there are a lot of people in and out of the building.  Lots of “human” traffic as it is a busy place.  With the arrival of spring the campus usually picks up some new inhabitants that are not usually here during the regular school year—wood ducks.  The wood ducks replace the wild turkeys that wander around the campus during the school year.  This year was no different, with the warmer weather the turkeys went into hiding and the ducks replaced them.

I am not sure where the turkeys wander off to, but for a while the ducks have the run of the campus.  They like the irrigation canal that runs through the campus, plus they like the water sprinklers.  Either way, I like the wild life that inhabits the campus and I especially like the ducks . . . especially when they have hatched their ducklings.  They are a blast to watch.

Now I do not know the pregnancy cycle of the wood duck and nor do I really want to learn.  What I do know is that they hatch their young in’s from eggs—they lay on top of the eggs until the little boogers are ready to come out and meet the world.  I do not know whether or not the female duck carries the egg around until it is ready to drop—sort of like a woman carries a baby and it is ready to come.  If that is the case, then I imagine that whenever that egg is ready to drop that the mother duck drops it wherever it might be.  For example, like in a flower bed next to the busiest building on campus.  Sort of like the one I have pictured below.

 

There is quite a debate on campus about the mental health of the duck pictured above.  It seems that about two weeks ago it decided that the flower bed in front of McMullen Hall was the place to hatch its brood.  So imagine it was just walking around, felt those “birth” pangs coming on, and looked around for a convenient place to deposit her eggs.  From what I understand there are approximately four eggs that she is incubating among the flowers.  She is pretty oblivious to the world around her as she nestles there among the flowers.  She doesn’t bother anyone, and no bothers her.  I imagine that if anyone did bother her or her nest they deserve everything that they get.

Typically ducks do not lay their eggs right out there in public for the whole world to see.  Why this particular duck chose to do this . . . well, that is the debate.  Some folks believe the duck is losing it—going quackers in a way.  I don’t agree with that theory.  I think this little duck did what it had to do.  I think that those little boogers just showed up, demanded a place in the world, and she did what she had to do . . . she plopped them out . . . right there in the flower garden where she happened to be at the time.  What else could she do?  When Mother Nature calls we all do well to heed her call.

I admire that little duck as she covers her nest.  I admire that she did the only thing that she could do and that was to complete the job that she was given.  Thus she sits there as the world wanders by, gawking, pointing, and laughing at the absurdity (at least in their minds) of this little duck’s situation.  The bottom line, though, is that the duck is doing what she needed to do.  I have yet to hear a complaint escape her bill lamenting her situation.  I have watched as she tirelessly and patiently awaits the hatching of her brood.  And, I have anticipated the day when those little quackers show up.  It won’t be long . . . in the meantime, she does what she has to do.

I guess deep down I admire her because she is doing what most of us never do, and that is to deal with our lives and the cards that we are dealt . . . that we just don’t always do what we have to do.  Instead of complaining and lamenting  . . . she patiently awaits and does her job.  I guess she has a lot to teach us all.