In his book, The Call, Os Guinness says that CALLING “is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service.” (p. 4)  If this is true, then maybe we need to rephrase some of the questions that we are quick to ask kids these days.  Should “what do you want to be when you grow up?” be asked as “what does God want you to do when you grow up?”  Could we change “where do you want to go to college?” or “what do you want to study in college?” to something that acknowledges God’s role in the process like, “how has God gifted and called you and where should you go based on your answer?”  Some will say that this is just semantics.  I believe it is much more than that – it is a perspective on life.  It says that God is at the center, that He is King over His Kingdom, and that I consider it a great honor and blessing to serve the King.

It goes farther than that, though.  It is more than just a college choice, a college major, and a career.  It means that we need to look at everything (note the three “everythings” in the quote by Guinness above) in light of this Kingdom mindset.  It is with this desire in mind that Westminster Catawba Christian School will be hosting our first Christian Calling Symposium next week (October 29th and 30th).  The focus will be Politics and God’s Kingdom, with the intent of reminding all of us that we are to look at politics (one of those everythings!) from a biblical Kingdom perspective.  It is our hope to begin the process of helping our students, and the rest of the school community, to live our lives in light of God’s calling.  We will not all be called to careers in politics, but we are called to involvement in the political arena.  I am really excited to see how God will use the upcoming symposium to challenge all of us to examine how God is calling us to serve!  In future years, the hope is to continue with symposiums focused on community development, the arts, medicine, and education with the same desire to hear from folks called into these arenas BY God and FOR His Kingdom.

For more information on our Christian Calling Symposium, click HERE.  I hope that many of you are able to join us!

 

As I sit to write this blog installment, it is Friday, October 9th.  My day began in the Lower School Gym of Westminster Catawba Christian School as I attended my first-ever 4K TRIANGLE PARADE.  For those unfamiliar, it is exactly as it sounds.  Our four-year-olds have been learning about triangles doing everything from finding them in the world around them to drawing them to combining them to form other shapes.  So, these students paraded around the inside of our gym (with most of the lower school students sitting in the middle and lots of parents and grandparents on hand to take in the festivities) displaying triangles in every way you could imagine – all while making as much noise as possible.  What else would you expect of a parade???  And, while I thoroughly enjoyed the parade of smiling faces, I think I most enjoyed watching the parents taking pictures.  At one point, I surveyed the room and counted 39 cameras in use – everything from mobile phones to iPads to some really nice actual cameras!  As I stood there enjoying the parade, I thought about how my day is scheduled to come to an end.

Tonight is Senior Night for our fall sports teams.  That means that my wife and I will have the privilege of walking onto the WCCS soccer field with Andrew, our senior soccer player.  I know from our instructions on the evening that there will be lots of pictures taken there as well – as they should be.  I am actually looking forward to getting a few pics to send to our extended family who won’t be able to attend.  Then, my mind wandered one more time to the third event that I was supposed to be a part of today, but can’t because of Senior Night.  My high school graduating class (the Westminster Academy Class of 1985) is celebrating their 30-year reunion in South Florida tonight.

In our world of social media, there have been LOTS of pictures from my high school days posted online in the last few weeks in anticipation of this reunion – and I have copied one to the right of a pretty good basketball team back in the day.  I know that many of my high school classmates plan on spending time this weekend remembering (and likely looking at pictures to jog their memories) and updating each other with regards to the last thirty years.

Pictures are great!  They are literally a snapshot in time – to help us remember!  They also give us an opportunity to see God’s handiwork!  As I look back at pictures of me in high school, fond memories flood my mind.  But, those are quickly followed by the awareness of God’s goodness and His faithfulness.  I am not that young man in the picture.  Yes, that means that I am no longer young.  But, it also means that God has thirty years of sanctifying work in me to make me more like Jesus.  I look forward to standing with my son this evening and celebrating his senior year.  I also look forward to seeing what God will do in and through him in the next thirty years.  And, those four-year-olds that paraded around the gym this morning will be seniors before we know it – and I pray that God will be working on them the whole time as well.

To my classmates from Westminster Academy, I will miss being with you this weekend.  Know that I am with you in spirit and that I pray God’s richest blessings on every one of you.  To the seniors who will be recognized tonight, I pray that God will use you to impact His kingdom now and in the future!  And, to the four-year-olds (and their parents), may God bless you as you look at the pictures from this morning and give you great hope that He will be your God all the days of your life!