Monday, while "woman-ing" the grill....old school charcoal is how I roll.....I remarked, "This is a great fire! Look at these glowing red coals!" Of course that led me to reflect on Isaiah 6.1-8.....what???? You mean when you grill this is also not a reflection you have????
......clergy are weird......
Isaiah 6.1 - 8 was one of the lectionary readings this previous Sunday and details the call story of the prophet Isaiah. The highlight of the passage is the tale of an angel bearing tongs of hot coals approaching the prophet and placing said coals onto Isaiah's lips. It might be just me, yet, I don't recall that particular story included in a felt-board lesson for children's Sunday School.
My call story has no descending angels with hot coals. Whew.....What my call story features are the affirmations of others whose words and comments could have come from the "Just for Sally Snyder" section of a Hallmark store. Instance after instance, person after person, sermon after sermon all confirmed and affirmed what I was experiencing as a call to ministry.....of course the cool part was I had told no one that I had this nudge, this sense of calling, these "you talking to me, God?" moments.
Fact is each of us, I believe are gifted, shaped, called and sent.....it's just the clergy call thing gets more of the "Hollywood" treatment and in people's minds tends to "corner the market" on being called.
It's the being sent piece that is the fun part. It would be great if God worked in the neon signs or GPS methods more often -- "Turn approaching....recalculating...." Alas, it doesn't work that way so one is contemplative, prayerful, attentive, shares out with the universe, watches, trusts and steels up the courage to act and to go.
As both a softball player and coach there was a whole lot of importance and trust placed in the third base coach. I was taught that when rounding second to not watch the ball and instead to immediately pick up my third base coach and heed the sign to stay or go; of course and to cheese-up this metaphor even more, the point was to get safely home......