Every once in a while (perhaps more often than we would like) God calls us from our comfort zone to a place or a society where we feel, literally, like fish out of water.
Just recently I traveled to another city, to participate in a conference where I knew only one or two out of around 50 people, in a context that was quite foreign to my typical milieu. I knew I was called to be there, but I wasn't quite sure how I would breathe or move about or where my soul would find its solace. After all, I am an introvert by nature, and one who seeks solitude and silence.
I'm an adventurer, to be sure, but usually with matters involving nature and the out of doors, and there was little if any hope to be outdoors for any prolonged period of time. The conference was in the middle of a metropolitan area, surrounded by high speed highways, with little if any place to get out and stretch one's legs or pause on the byway. I learned, too, that there wasn't much hope for prolonged and total silence.
I was willing to follow the call to attend. However, within a few hours I was wondering if I had gotten myself into a real fix!
So after a good night's rest, I turned to the daily reading. There it was!
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Aaahhh...
Sometimes when we move out of familiarity we do get ourselves in a bind, especially if we try to keep moving on our own steam. We look for the places and the people who will put us at ease or where we can find something at least
similar to our home front.
The situation is transformed when we acknowledge our wonder or discomfort and carry it to the Lord of the Call. If we are truly called to this foreign place it is critical to remember that we are there under God's guidance.
Part of being guided requires trust, humility, and a willingness to be vulnerable. Yep...it may even look like we are regressing. After all, in our home ground we may be self regulating. We may be big fish, so to speak, in the familiar pond. And then in that new territory to which God has called us, we feel like we are floating or floundering in uncertainty.
We realize we aren't so big, and not so certain. So we must trust -- in what? In God's promise, that when God moves us, something new is being born as a result of the willingness to say "Yes, I will go!" and "I ask God to help and guide me."
God calls us to grow, to deepen; even the most mature or skilled of us. In the new place where God leads, we are being reformed in new and fresh ways, in God's Love, which provides our certain place, our sure protection and our most essential nourishment. Kind of like a womb, don't you think?
