There is much about our lives that are not helped by a list of moral rules or principles to live by—as useful as these may be. Having principles or morals to live by, which I learned from my parents, while important, did not help me to know that God called me to be a pastor and teacher in the church. The Holy Spirit did that.
None of us come to have our own sense of calling by our thoughts on what is ethical but by the Spirit leading us.
When we sought to discern next steps in a difficult situation or relationship and had to make a decision, broad principles about the good life did not help us. The Spirit helped us, as we prayed for guidance.
When we were faced with a vocational choice or a choice between multiple opportunities, any of which could be right for someone, we were seeking direction, not for something general, but for what was right for us. What would God have us do that fit our gifts and sense of self?
The Spirit helped us, gave us peace about a particular direction, a sense that one thing fitted us and some other did not. And we could not say it was because one thing was better than the other, only that we felt a peace about the steps we decided to take and a resistance to or reservations about alternate steps.
When someone came to us with a problem, and there was not a clear right or wrong answer, but rather a word was needed, we prayerfully listened and sought the Spirit’s guidance, and we were given the needed word. Or, we realized that the most important thing we could do was to simply actively listen in such a manner that we could ask helpful questions, trusting the Spirit to bring to the mind of the person who had come to us the thing that was needed, the word or action.
I often told a person who came to me for counseling that there were three of us in the room. The person who had come to me and myself and the Holy Spirit. With the Spirit’s help, the needed answer could come from either one of us as we opened ourselves to what God was doing and to God’s will.
God has called each of us, but we do not all have the same callings. We come to know what God calls each of us to do by being open to God’s will and being led by the Spirit.
What wonderful good news we receive when Jesus tells us that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will teach us everything. The Spirit will teach us what we need when we need it and will remind us of things that we knew and now in a particular situation need to remember.
We are not left alone with what we face today. We have the helper, the Holy Spirit, who is always with us. We have help for these times in which we live. We have help for discerning God’s call for the particular ways we are to do justice, love mercy, and live faithfully. Therefore, we venture forth in the Spirit and in prayer for the present call of God and the actions God would have us take.
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