Dr. John E. Johnson

Dr. John E. Johnson
Blog, Life Issues

THE FORCE OF CALLING

Escaping to the wilderness to work on a global leadership project is cutting in to the time I need to devote to posts, but along the way I hope to share some of the insights. This one comes this morning from “The Leader in Midlife” (Richard Leider):

“The essential leadership question today is, What is calling me? As we live with this question in mind, we not only uncover the meaning that we seek in our lives, we also affirm our life’s work. Whether we ask this question during adolescence, during midlife, or in elderhood, it is the big question, and it is the question we must continue to ask and answer even in retirement. Because what shapes and directs our lives more than anything else are the questions we ask, fail to ask, or never dream of asking ourselves. It is our questions that create the lives we lead.”

This gets me thinking–as perhaps it does you–

-what is calling me? Does it have God’s fingerprints all over it? Does it rise above myself? Does it wake me up in the morning? Does it take advantage of my gifts and my passions?

-am I coming back to this question often? Am I fully aware that God’s call is as significant today–for me in my 60’s–as it was yesterday, only more so? Only more so!!

-what questions am I failing to ask–or never dreaming to ask? Hmmm… When is the last time I asked God to enlarge my boundaries, and ask with both intentionality and faith? Who is God putting in front of me–who appear to have found their calling and, hence, showing me what this looks like? What is God putting in front of me that I might be too distracted to see?

-am I aware that heeding God’s call is the core thread of living a life? That nothing else really matters!

On a long ride yesterday, some of us talked about these questions. We are realizing there is no time to waste.

Leider concludes with a quote from the playwright George Bernard Shaw–“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature (I would change–‘force of God’) instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”

Hmmm….

 

 

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