I posted this prayer a couple of days ago on the Light for the Journey Facebook page. Because of its popularity I thought I would post it here too so that all of you can enjoy it as well.
Lord Jesus Christ
We live in hope
That the brokenness of our souls
Is being transformed.
Greed into generosity,
Self-fulfillment into mutual care,
Hate into compassion,
Fear into love.
Lord Jesus Christ
We live in hope
That the distortion of relationships
Is being redeemed.
Oppression into freedom,
Exploitation into justice,
War into peace.
Lord Jesus Christ
We live in hope,
That the pollution of our planet
Is being restored.
Smog filled air made clean,
Denuded forests replanted,
Endangered species protected.
Lord Jesus Christ
We live in hope
All that is broken
All that is distorted
All that is polluted
will be made new.
The development of a sense of call and the setting of goals as I have talked about over the last couple of weeks can sound like a lot of hard work. This sounds like work that is confining and restricting to many people who feel that freedom means having no restrictions, no commitments that call us into tomorrow, no boundaries that restrict how we spend the present day.
In fact I have found it to be the exact opposite. When we set boundaries, we find the freedom of saying no to good ideas that are not part of God’s call on our life. When we know our limitations, we learn to live more fully in the present moment, confident that we can trust God for each step of our journey.
Let me explain. Off the east coast of England, is the island of Lindisfarne, where there was once a thriving community of Celtic monks. To get to the island one must cross a causeway which is only navigable at low tide. Markers line the causeway to warn travellers of the depth of the water, letting them know whether or not it is safe to travel.
That is what I think the setting of goals should be like. Our goals are not hoped for achievements that can place heavy burdens on our backs when we don’t accomplish then in the expected time or way. Goals are markers meant to tell us that we are still on the right path and the way ahead is still safe to travel.
Part of what this type of process encourages is a more leisurely way of life. When the causeway is covered we stop. We wait, we pause and perhaps we set new goals.
As Michael Casey says in Strangers to the City:
Leisure is not idleness or pursuit of recreational activities. It is above all being attentive to the present moment, open to all its implications, living it to the full. (28).
Casey goes on to explain:
Attentiveness is acquired by most people through a habit of reflectiveness – learning to step back from experience to ponder its meaning. (31).
I have thought a lot about this over the last week. Living into our sense of call, and establishing clear goals for every area of our life, requires times of attentive reflection. Relaxing into each moment and living fully into all it has to offer is only really possible when we are confident of the destination towards which we are travelling.
These kinds of goals liberate us because they give us room to breathe. They give us time for ourselves, for each other, and for god. They give us time to encourage, to support, to step back and discern. They give us time to evaluate the effectiveness of our actions and the realism of our goals.
Perhaps we need to rethink how we live. Perhaps we need to remind ourselves of who God calls us to be and what God calls us to do. Perhaps God is guiding us in new ways. God wants to free all of us from the tyranny of the urgent and the burden of busyness. Effective goals and a sense of call help us to do just that.
This post is the last in a series on Christian call and goal setting
Check out the other posts in this series:
Finding God’s Purpose without Getting Burned Out
Find Your Purpose – An Active Listening Process
When You Feel Called Set Some Goals
You might also like to check out
Icon of Christ
In my last post in this series on calling and purpose, I talked about an active listening process which I have used to help develop a sense of kingdom focused purpose for my life. However I realize that using a process like this is only effective if we take the next step and use our calling statement as a basis for developing goals in every area of life. Our purpose is not to feel good about who we are but to provide foundations for the transformation of our lives.
However we do need to be realistic as we set goals. So often I find that people set goals in life and ministry as though they are isolated individuals with no boundaries on what they do. Sometimes their goals are very self serving. Remember God’s call is to be other centred not self centred.
Another trap in setting goals is try to bite off more than we can chew. Setting small incremental goals that we revisit frequently to readjust and renew is far better than trying to take mammoth impossible steps. So often we start by feeling we want to save the world and jump into impossible situations that set us up for failure.
So before you set goals for you life consider the boundaries God has placed on you life. Be realistic about responsibilities to your family, church & community and the limitations these place on your possible responses. Families and faith communities matter and should always be taken into consideration when we make decisions about the future.
Be realistic about restrictions placed by health, disability, and emotional problems you may struggle with. When I developed chronic fatigue syndrome 20 years ago, I needed to set new limits for myself in terms of afternoon siestas, diet and exercise. Ignoring these limitations meant I became ill again. Accepting my limits led me into new and exciting opportunities for my life.
Be realistic about financial consideration like school debts, credit card bills and other financial obligations. God’s call on our lives does mean we can run away from our financial irresponsibility to family, governments or to institutions.
Be realistic about your own talents and resources and the most effective way to use these. Perhaps your first step will be to get additional education which will equip you to more effectively accomplish what God has placed on your heart.
I suggest that you write down the boundaries that will constrain how your sense of calling can be fulfilled at your present stage of life and then find a mentor to share these with. Wise counselors and help us determine realistic limits and boundaries these set on your life in terms of relocation or vocation. Share your sense of calling with them and work together to establish goals that can help you effectively journey into God’s call on your life. Enlist their help in developing daily & weekly time schedule to help discipline your use of time within the boundaries and limitations you face.
Finally, remember that God calls us to abundant life not to burnt out or stressed out living. God is not a hard task master. Those rhythms that provide balance between community and solitude, work and rest, secular and spirituality should be reflected in the goals we set. So often we concentrate on ministry but need to take just as much time to set goals for relationships, celebration, relaxation & rest.
When I first started taking regular prayer retreats to refocus my life I sat down and worked out a list of areas in which I felt I needed to set goals regularly. You might find this list helpful for you too.
SPIRITUAL LIFE
- Personal prayer, meditation & Bible study
- times for spiritual refreshment, retreat & renewal
- Christian fellowship & small group involvement
- evaluate the daily, weekly and yearly rituals that give your life a spiritual rhythm
- develop a liturgy for all of life
VOCATION AND CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
- Evaluate involvement in Christian ministry either as a full-time vocation or in your free time
- Evaluate your church and local mission involvement
- Evaluate involvement in global mission & world need
JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
- Evaluate work responsibilities – “I love my work” No excuse for ignoring other commitments
- learn to concentrate on God’s essentials
- Realistically evaluate household responsibilities & chores
- Take note of children’s school & extracurricular activities
IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIPS
- Marriage & family
- Friendships – both Christian & non-Christian
- Community involvement & neighbours
HOSPITALITY AND CELEBRATION
- Celebrate events on Christian calendar
- celebrate significant “rites of passage” and events of the past
- invent new Christian celebrations
- entertain friends & strangers
PHYSICAL DISCIPLINES
- Diet & state of health
- Exercise routine – set goals consistent with your physical health
REST AND RELAXATION
- Sabbath observance
- days off & vacation
- sleep
CREATIVITY
- involvement in arts & music
- hobbies & other creative interests
FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP & — USE OF GOD’S RESOURCES
- consumerism & lifestyle level – how much is enough
- Care & stewardship of God’s creation
- Generosity & Christian giving & sharing
Check out the other posts in this series:
Finding God’s Purpose without Getting Burned Out
Find Your Purpose – An Active Listening Process
You might also like to check out
As many of you know I love to revisit prayers that I have written on a regular basis. This is one that I find helpful when I am facing a new decision where I struggle with the tension between my own desires and God’s ways. Always good ro remind me of God’s focus and priorities.
The joy of journalling
The following is an active listening process which we develop some years ago to help us gain a clear sense of God’s purpose for our lives. I used it to write my own personal calling statement which I keep at the front of the journal I use when I go on retreat. It is a wonderful reminder of God’s priorities for my lives and helps me to set kingdom focused goals for the upcoming months.
Active Listening Process.
- Write down your earliest memories of a sense of the call of God on your life
- How has God been speaking to you through scripture – write down significant scriptures that give you a sense of God’s call on our life
- How has God been speaking to you through prayer – write down those things that you feel called to pray for on a regular basis
- How has God been speaking to you through the needs of others – Write down the areas of human need, suffering and pain that most make you want to respond
- How has God been speaking to you through community? – write down the ways that God has spoken to you through the advice & counsel of others
- Make a list of your own gifts & talents –
- spiritual:
- physical or intellectual:
- creative:
- In what ways have your educational opportunities helped to develop these gifts?
- How could these contribute to your sense of Christian calling:
- Write down your broken areas – God often uses our weaknesses to change the world
- What are your dreams & hopes for the future. Write these down – even our self centred dreams may hold elements of God’s purposes for our lives:
WRITING YOUR OWN MISSION STATEMENT
- Look back over all that you have written in the active listening process – prayerfully consider ways in which these could come together in a beginning mission statement that flows out of your sense of Biblical purpose.
- Incorporate scripture where possible or write the scripture that has inspired your mission statement beside your mission statement
- Make short, concise and easy enough to memorize
- Make inspirational – this statement is meant to fill you with enthusiasm for the future that God has planned for your life
- Examples of good mission statements –
- “To be a voice for the voiceless and bring glimpses of God’s shalom Kingdom into peoples’ lives” Prov 31:8,9“
- To be a mediator of reconciliation between God and people with broken hearts, bringing them to growth and maturity in Jesus Christ” Eph 4:11,12
- “To be an expression of God’s Jubilee in my community and throughout the world” Lev 26:10-13
- “To be an instrument of God’s healing bringing restoration to the land and to people’s lives” Is 58:6-9
Use your imagination & creativity to bring all the steps from the active listening process together in your own beginning mission statement:
Check out the other posts in this series:
Today’s post is the third in a series on helping us to prioritize our lives. I chose the photo above by Phillipino artist Emmanuel Garibay to represent this post because it makes me think of someone who has no focus or sense of purpose.
In my post two days ago I commented: God doesn’t intend us to live overburdened, stressed out lives yet so many Christians I know commit themselves to far more than they can possibly handle and as a consequence many end up burning out. Some reject their faith or walk away from their faith communities because they cannot cope with these extra pressures on their lives.
So how do we avoid this? Looking at the life of Jesus I notice several characteristics that we could well adopt and I strongly encourage all of us to spend time as I am currently doing, reflecting on scripture and our sense of purpose in order to be more effective followers of Christ.
Jesus had a clear, and very precise sense of what God had called him to do. – Lk 4:17-19 – Jesus came announcing the Kingdom of God – All of Jesus actions demonstrated to his disciples & followers what God’s eternal shalom Kingdom was meant to look like. As a result of that focus He knew exactly how to allocate His time & resources, He know when to say yes and he knew when to say no to what he was asked to do. As a result, his life seems to flow to a rhythm that attracted all who knew Him
I think our lives need to be as focused as Jesus’ was. Like him we need to have a very clear sense of what God is calling us to do and when to say no to what does not fit within those boundaries. A good starting place is to revisit the clear overarching calling statement Jesus gave to all human kind. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and love your neighbour as yourself. Or you might like to do some study on the values and culture of the kingdom of God. Living into these values should be the central passion of all followers of Christ.
Out of this foundation we need to use Jesus priorities & life example to develop our own kingdom focused personal or family calling statement. A statement like this can help us shape not only our work priorities but all of our commitments.
A calling statement is a short phrase or sentence that provides an individual or group of people with a sense of purpose for their lives. It expresses what we see as the reason for our existence and defines the focus for all we are and do.
Biblically based calling statements begin with scripture study and an understanding of God’s shalom purposes for our lives as a foundation for defining that focus. They are centred on our relationship to God not on our personal happiness, dreams or ambitions. They are outwardly focused on care for others not inwardly on our own needs They are clear, concise & easy to memorize. Such a statement should have broad enough wording to incorporate every area of life. Make it purposeful & inspirational – A sense of meaning that wakes you up in the morning and sends you striding enthusiastically into the day ahead.
Stay with us tomorrow for the next post in this series on an active listening process for developing your own personal calling statement.
Check out the previous posts:
chapel painting at CMU Winnipeg by Ray Dirks
This is the second post in this series on setting priorities and refocusing our lives. It is not the first time I have written about this topic and you may like to check out my earlier post Did Jesus Lead A Balanced Life where I talk about the need that all of us have for a balance between solitude and community, work and rest, spiritual and secular. To this in recent years I have added the need for balance between feasting and fasting.
Today as I think about this however I am coming from a slightly different angle. As I travel I am reading Strangers to the City: Reflections on the Beliefs and Values of the Rule of Saint Benedict by Michael Casey a Monk of Tarrawarra Abbey here in Australia. What caught my attention this morning is his comment
The purpose of a quiet life needs to be clear: It is to facilitate a quiet mind in which spiritual priorities become progressively more dominant. Nor is this withdrawal an invitation to isolation and introspection. It is, rather, a matter of providing the opportunity of entering more deeply into reality and of living from the heart. (25).
He goes on to suggest that living from the heart can only come from a heart that has tasted how good the Lord is and how energizing it can be to be still before the Lord.
I find that my own heart aches for this kind of priority. I have indeed tasted how good the Lord is and want spiritual priorities to become progressively more dominant, but when I am busy I must confess that this does not happen. Work not God so easily becomes my priority.
Reminding myself that my ultimate goal in life is to both draw near to Jesus, the lover of my soul and model the same priorities and values he displayed is an important regular discipline for me. None of us can hope to change if we do not intentionally discipline our lives to accept the need for change and work rigourously to see that change occur.
I have no intention of becoming a monk, but I do realize there is much I can learn from the disciplines they practice. Listening to the whispers of the inner voice that is only heard when I step away from external distractions, even from external excitement and seek only for the inner peace and contentment of a soul that has indeed tasted and seen that the Lord is not only good but more to be desired than anything else.
Lord God Almighty,
May I learn to live from my heart.
In times of quiet may I still my soul
That I might taste and see how good you are.
Lord God Almighty,
May I desire your presence above all else.
May I find my strength in being still
Before the one who is the lover of my soul.
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