the call

E, I love your definitions and explanations on "the call". I love that you gave the definition and then made specific examples of what that explanation could look like to someone looking for it. That's awesome! I just heard from emailing with Josh that home-group is "ending" as a result of all the moves taking place? Is that right? How are you and Brooke dealing with that? I think if I were being flowy and describing a call to someone now, I would tell them how you and Brooke wrestled so much with some of the vision and organizational issues of the home-group and yet how in that wrestling you added so much vision and organization to the group. If the group truly is ending, then I'd tell how you thought of leaving, but saw God there and that without full understanding, you stayed where you saw God until He brought to completion whatever it was He was needing to do, freeing each of you to take the things learned on to the next place, which in my mind for your case may very well be a fully functional home church. I think that in describing my experience of God's call for you guys, I learn of the role of faithfulness that "the call" possesses, both to God and His timing and from God in the sense of place He gives us for a time, the training He does there, and the transition to a "next" place that reveals things we never appreciated while there. Duane Elmer is a prof at Trinity who writes cross-cultural books. In a fascinating chapter about cultural perspectives on time, he says there are two Greek words for time in the Bible: 1) chronos: refers to time segments, sequences, or what we think of as calendar time. 2) kairos: is used twice as often and still very characteristic of the attitude of "less" industrial countries. It refers to opportunity, right timing, the appropriate time, or the meaningful time. I think the concept of "kairos" helps add some depth to the kind of faithfulness that I think of when I think of the call. In fact, I guess I'm thinking of the call as multivalent in its any one activity when in the Lord's hands. I mean, part of the same call I just described to the home group, was obviously also a call to share you life, since it was at the same time a testimony to me of faithfulness and calling. Anyway, I'm going to stop restating and go get more coffee now...