Exploring the Meaning of Our Call

Rev. Dr. DeWayne L. Davis

This Week at Plymouth, September 20, 2024

“Seldom are callings straightforward or without suffering. We don’t resolve them easily or early or all at once. Discerning an inner voice or hearing a higher call from outside ourselves is hard work.”

—Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, Follow Your Bliss and Other Lies about Calling

I admit I still wrestle with the meaning of a calling. I was relieved when I recently read Bonnie Miller-McLemore’s assertion that it would be a mistake to assume that a calling describes “a one and only” purpose in life. On the contrary, “calling involves bliss and sacrifice” because for every call that seems ideally claimed and the source of meaning in one’s life, there is also a calling that can be missed, blocked, conflicted, fractured, unexpected, or relinquished. The pursuit of our call requires much grace.

In a recent sermon, I delved into our church’s call, pondering, “What are we meant to be? What are we meant to do?” As I asked these questions, I realized that Plymouth Church’s history is a testament to a complex, nonlinear journey to the present. Our success and achievements didn’t stem from a perfect understanding of our calling but from a brave navigation of desires, expectations, interests, and obligations in pursuing a covenanted community open to God’s revealing presence. Our predecessors discerned and followed their call in the being and doing of church. It’s easy to romanticize the idea of calling. Ordained ministry often prompts us to share a call story, but we seldom dwell on the inconvenience, frustration, or failure in following a call. And yet, a sense of calling follows us throughout our lives.

Perhaps the more significant challenge to understanding the meaning of our call is the commitment to it, even when it’s not the blissful experience we’ve been led to believe. Miller-McLemore wondered, “How do we remain true to our callings when they are often plagued by mistakes, disappointment, overload, oversight, and conflict?” While she has devoted an entire book to exploring that dilemma, I found solace in the image of the potter found in the book of Jeremiah. The prophet Jeremiah sees God as a potter, an artist, a shaper of nations and peoples. In this role as potter, God is willing to change and reconsider the divine response to the creation so that we may find our way to our work and purpose. God is not rigid, and God’s plan is not fixed, so why do we assume we should be? When our path is unknown, our purpose seems undefined, and what we thought we were supposed to do seems blocked or fractured, we can take comfort that our calling is in the loving hands of God (or love, universe, a higher power). This approach can make the journey more meaningful and hopeful even as we endure it. In relationship and community, we can bear the disruption and uncertainty that attends to anyone seeking to remain faithful to their call. Amen.