Christmas Break and Calling
Congratulations on surviving an exceedingly challenging semester. Every semester has its difficulties, but I’m sure this one may have been difficult in ways in ways you never imagined! Perhaps, the difficulty even allowed you to grow academically, spiritually, and relationally in ways that you can be thankful for.
Many of you have started a LONG Christmas break. My question is: how are you going to be intentional with this extended time to continue discovering God’s call on your life?
Here are a few simple suggestions:
Start a Journal
Recently, I found a journal from twenty years ago. I started it after my freshman year of college. It was kind of a combination of my hopes and dreams for my present and future life. I wrote some goals for myself and dreams for my future. I recorded my feelings and emotions about a range of things that were happening in my life. I made lists of things that made me joyful. I was honest about my fears, angers, sadnesses, inadequacies, failures. So. Many. Failures. I did this all before God. I was surprised by how powerful it was to see my former self addressing God directly. I wrote prayers to God. I asked for guidance. I asked to be set free from unhealthy patterns. I recorded moments when it felt like God had answered my prayers.
I realize now that it was all a great experiment in listening to myself and listening to God. I’ve heard people say, heard preachers preach, about the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. For me, starting a journal was a way to actively engage in relationship with God and to begin to cultivate a rich inner life.
One way to use the Christmas break to purposefully engage in a process of discovering God’s call on your life would be to start a journal. Don’t wait. Do it today!
Invite a Couple People into Holy Friendships
Over the years, I’ve come to believe that sometimes we are not in the best position to see what God is doing in our lives. We can’t do the work of discernment alone. We need friends to come alongside us.
C.S. Lewis, in his book Four Loves, talks about how not all friendships are of the same order. Some friendships are based on proximity. You grew up in the same place, went to the same high school, major in the same discipline. You know a friendship is based on proximity when you move from place to place. I bet you’ve begun to realize that some of your high school friendships didn’t go very deep at all. They were really just friendships rooted in proximity.
Other friendships are rooted in shared interest. You were a part of the same club soccer team. You are a part of the same sorority. You both like to play ultimate frisbee. You both enjoy binge watching Schitt’s Creek. Friendships rooted in shared interest a good as well, but they also only go so far. When you stop doing the same thing, the friendship kind of fizzles, because the only thing at the heart of it was a shared interest.
But, there is a deeper kind of friendship. This is the kind of friend who you can sit on the front porch with and look out at the world and you see the same world in the same way. You have shared philosophies about the good life, shared faith and convictions, shared passions and callings. The dean of Duke Divinity School, Greg Jones, calls these relationships, holy friendships.
Jones writes, “Holy friends challenge the sins we have come to love, affirm the gifts we are afraid to claim and help us dream dreams we otherwise would not dream.”
Holy friendship was the genius at the origin of the Methodist movement. John Wesley the founder of Methodism started small groups called band meetings. Band meetings were groups of three to five holy friends who read together, prayed together, and met together on a regular basis to search out God’s call on their lives in the daily rhythms of life. These friends asked the same questions of each other each time they gathered. Questions like:
How is it with your soul?
What are your struggles and successes?
How might the Spirit and Scriptures be speaking in your life?
As the relationships grew, they asked deeper, harder questions:
Do you have any sin that you want to confess?
Are there any secrets or hidden things you would like to share?
Maybe the Christmas break would be a good time for you to assess your friendships. I came to a point in my ministry when I knew that I needed some deeper friendships to sustain me. I called up two of my best friends from high school, both faithful, followers of Christ. I told them that I needed a more regular, intentional conversation with them. They challenge the sins I have come to love, affirm the gifts I’m afraid to claim and help me dream dreams I otherwise would not dream. They are holy friends.
Discovering God’s call on your life isn’t work that you have to do alone. Invite someone into holy friendship today.
Apply for The Co-op Summer Internship!
The Co-op’s Summer Internship is a ten-week summer experience of work, prayer, discipleship formation, and vocational discernment in a local church. It is for college and grad students who want to grow their relationship with Christ and explore what it looks like to be a leader in the Church.
The application process is constructed to be an instrument of your own discernment. It will ask you to think about your relationship to God, what qualities you think are important in Christian leadership, what you bring to kingdom work, and what areas you want to grow in. Writing an application doesn’t mean that you’re committed! It’s the start of a conversation and an exploration.
Maybe this is the Christmas break to say “yes” to Christ in a deeper way and make yourself available for the work of Christ’s kingdom in 2021!
Apply today if you’re ready to roll or email Student Recruitment Coordinator Billy Rainey to learn more!