God is Always Calling
Articles
By Andi Ashworth
Last summer I wrote the following e-mail to a friend, summarizing the past seven days of my life. I wrote in answer to her questions about what I'd been up to. Our conversation has been ongoing for many years now, so she knew the right questions to ask. Had I been writing? Had there been many houseguests?
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Yes, I've been writing, which also includes reading and studying, looking though journals for material, and praying for direction. And yes, we've been receiving guests. It's the ongoing thread of constancy in our lives. Steve Garber stayed with us on Thursday night. We had late night quesadillas and conversation. He came to be part of the Blood:Water Mission board meeting, which took place in our living room all day Friday. The organization, founded by Jars of Clay, exists to promote clean blood and clean water supplies in Africa. Also on Friday I cooked and delivered a meal to some of our extended family. They're just home from the hospital with a new baby. Over the weekend we hosted an artist Chuck is working with.
Katy came last week for coffee and conversation. We talked of the vocations of hospitality, marriage, and writing. Sandra came today and we met over cups of tea, our talk moving through a range of subjects. And my small group from Gospel Transformation class is coming tomorrow morning for brunch. Between preparing for guests, cooking, conversations, and clean up--I have been immersed!
We're trying to pay closer attention to this particular work of receiving people in order to be more aware of and more faithful to what God is doing in our midst. We're used to the work of hospitality, caregiving, and mentoring, but I think I still miss really understanding our vocation on some level, because it's so hard to name. Of course I'm referring to vocation in the biblical/historical sense--meaning the whole of our life, not just one job or one task. Vocation is a subject that continually intrigues me and seems to hold deeper and broader meaning as we age. It's also a topic that threads through many of our conversations with younger folks as they yearn to understand the meaning of calling in their own lives.
Framing Our Choices
One thing I know for sure as I approach my 50th year: Understanding one's calling is an ongoing process of discovery, and calling doesn't have to be limited to one area. I continue to find new aspects of calling announcing themselves in different chapters of our lives, and I don't suppose the revelation is over yet.
Young people of college age feel such pressure to decide what field of study to engage in, what kind of work to pursue. The age-old question, "what will you be when you grow up?" is haunting. I remember my daughter's anxiety as the need to declare a major loomed in her second year of college. Since my husband and I had grappled with the meaning of vocation for ourselves, we urged her to study what she loved, to move toward her true interests rather than worrying about the exact nature of her post-college life. We trusted that God would bring her to the work, people, and places that would fit the way He'd created her.
A few years after giving our daughter this advice, our pastor, Scotty Smith, gave Chuck and me similar counsel. We were living temporarily in St. Louis to attend Covenant Theological Seminary, and the Master of Divinity path my husband was on quickly showed itself to be the wrong one for him. During a break we came home and sought counsel from Scotty. He set us free from worrying about degree programs and told us to frame our choice of classes toward calling instead of degree. His advice reminded us of something important that had been lost.
A Whole That's a Fit for Me
As I survey my life from the perspective of middle age and vocation, this is what I see: I live in a small community west of Nashville. I'm continuing my seminary studies through Covenant's Access Distance Education Program. I am a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother. I'm part of an extended family in Nashville and California. I have a wide circle of friendships. I'm a member of Christ Community Church in Franklin, Tenn., and the body of Christ universal. I have older woman/younger woman mentoring relationships. And I partner with my husband Chuck in the business of music-specifically artist development, recording, and music publishing, with my role primarily taking shape as "care and nurture through hospitality." All of these relationships have privileges, responsibilities, and time attached to them.
Because hospitality is so deeply woven into our calling, place is important. Our home, the Art House, a turn-of-the-century, remodeled country church, is central to who we are and what we do. It figures prominently in our story and provides the setting for most of our work, especially that of receiving people. Though travel is a part of our life, our calling is rooted to a place, anchored to a spot on the map.
Our callings have developed over many years. There isn't one particular word or title that explains the work that Chuck and I do, though we've spent time trying to find precise definitions in order to get a better grasp on how to proceed. Chuck told Christian Musician magazine that for a decade he "wrestled with how to reconcile what seemed to be callings to several areas of word and work. I kept trying to narrow it down-you know, ‘I'll just be a songwriter, no, I'll be a producer; no, I'll write books; yeah, and I'll go to seminary and be a pastor.' I don't wrestle with this anymore. Today all these different callings are neither seen or felt as separate, but instead make up a whole that's a fit for me. That said, I'll be busy writing books, speaking and teaching, developing artists, and helping them with their lives and work. I'll play a little jazz, co-run the Art House with Andi, write some songs, produce some music, and catch a few trout now and again. Stuff like that."
The Protestant doctrine of vocation, with its roots in the teachings of Martin Luther and John Calvin, helps us make sense of our life and attach importance to all its parts. From this perspective vocation consists of our stations in life and the avenues through which we relate to others: marriage, families, friendships, neighborhoods, citizenship in a city, state, and nation, and membership in the body of Christ-both locally and globally. In combination, our vocations come through the gifts and talents God has given us to be used for the sake of others. Through our roles, gifts, relationships, and the needs revealed in those relationships, the command to love God and neighbor becomes personal rather than abstract. In Vocation: Discerning our Callings in Life , Douglas J. Schuurman points out that no one is called to be a Christian "in general." Rather, we all have concrete and specific geographic locations, relationships, and settings in which to use our gifts and serve God in our generation. Our calling to follow Jesus and be a certain kind of people is expressed through all of these. "Calling" is a comprehensive picture of the unique path laid out for each of us, consisting of the particular things God has asked us-and sometimes no one else-to do.
Living Expectantly-At Every Age
When we look at our days through the lens of calling, life is infused with meaning, since there is no part that sits outside of life in Christ. And because new aspects of our callings continue to unfold with age, we can live expectantly. We can know that retirement from a certain job or even the devastating death of a loved one does not mean the end of meaning and purpose in life. It may feel like it, but God is faithful to take a yielded life and guide us into new seasons, surprising us with what's around the corner. For me, a published writing life began to emerge as the significant work of child-rearing was ending. I grieved the passage into empty nest, but not for long. New callings and challenges came into view.
Callings are not always crystal clear. It takes reflection and assessment to figure them out. Since the path before us is uniquely ours, we must pay attention to what God is showing us through our relationships, inclinations, natural and spiritual gifts, and life circumstances. It's liberating to consider the things we love to do-and will always do in some capacity-because they are integral to the way God designed us.
Sometimes as a calling is forming in our lives, we're more filled with irritation and confusion than satisfaction and joy. It took years for me to adjust to the public nature of our home. Under God's tutelage and formation I've come to love this Art House life and can't imagine any other. But it's been a journey with many different seasons, some with overwhelming amounts of people and time demands, and each one contributing to an understanding of our limitations, our strengths, our weaknesses, and wisdom about how to continue.
As a further aid to understanding my callings, once or twice a week I write the content of recent days in my journal. This helps me recognize when something new is appearing and helps me see what is continual over time. As I look back through the pages I'm better able to discern what God is doing in our midst, how He's shaping my days and nights, the work of my hands and heart, and my prayers. I can then be more faithful in planning, preparing, responding, and making room for the life He's giving me individually and in partnership with my husband.
Giving It a Name
Upon meeting new people we ask the question "What do you do?" When we reconnect with friends and family we inquire of each other "What have you been up to?" While filling out forms at the bank or the doctor's office there's one small space to answer the question "What is your occupation?" For any one of us, life and calling is so much more complex than a one-word answer or summary sentence. But still we must try to name things as best as we can, and for more important reasons than those medical forms. God is up to all kinds of things in His world and He gives His children the important work of participating. Modern life constantly confronts us with endless choices of how to give our time. Understanding and naming our callings helps us to be more inner-driven than outer-driven. It helps us in living faithfully through grace, with attentiveness to the particular life God is giving us.
From youth to old age we have a deep and human need for meaning and purpose, to know why we should get up in the morning. As I listen to my older friends and relatives I learn that age brings the possibility of loss: loss of spouse, friends, careers, health, and ways of life. Aging often brings new limitations, but it can bring just as many new opportunities. Young or old, those with eyes to see and ears to hear can recognize new callings. Perhaps now is the time to turn your attention to something you've always been interested in, but never had time for. It may be a time to learn to receive help from others, a humbling but necessary part of life for all of us. It is not too late to be more thoughtful and intentional about the ways you can invest in people's lives, whether friends, family, or strangers. A friend of mine, a man in his 40s, recently returned from serving through music at a retreat center in the hill country of Texas. He was moved and enriched by the people in their 70s and beyond who had much to offer those who were younger. They gave out of their stores of wisdom, knowledge, and life experience. In my friend's words, they were "still bringin' it" and they inspired him as he looks to his own future.
Eugene Peterson captures it beautifully in his paraphrase of Romans 8: "This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?"
Andi Ashworth is the author of Real Love for Real Life: The Art and Work of Caring . Andi partners with her husband Charlie Peacock-Ashworth in the work of the Art House, a 90-year-old, renovated country church that serves as the Ashworths' home, as well as their place of business and ministry.
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