We Need Others to Figure Out our Calling

We were never meant to discern what God has given us to do on our own. We're supposed to need others to help us figure out what it looks like for us to do what God has planned for us to do.

I was struck by this as I read and reflected on the angel's conversation with Mary in Luke 1:26-38. In these verses, the angel tells Mary about what God has planned for her. Mary chose to trust God and surrender to His plan despite the unknowns it brought. Mary was willing to be obedient to God's call on her life.

But, what really struck me was what Mary did next - after her conversation with the angel. Luke 1:39-40 says, "At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth." In the face of her great and overwhelming calling from God, May went to someone who might understand and help her on this journey. She went to Elizabeth.

The angel had told Mary that Elizabeth was also carrying an unexpected child according to God's plan. It would make sense that Mary would seek out Elizabeth in this time. A person who might have some insight and understanding as she tried to make sense of this all.

We also need people we can turn to when we're working to make sense of something God has said to us, has called us to. I don't believe we were meant to try to figure it all out alone. We were meant to work through these things in relationship, not in isolation.

The Missing Piece in our Discussions about Sabbath

In the last few years, I've noticed an increase in the amount of time we spend talking about Sabbath, about our need to regular times of rest in our lives. In a world that never seems to shut off, this has been a refreshing conversation to hear and engage in. It's been encouraging to see people become intentional about beginning to practice it again.

But, as we've done so, I think we've missed a vital part of what Sabbath was intended to be when God designed it for us. I know I missed it for a long time, and didn't even realize I was missing it.

I think this piece we've is the reason why our efforts at creating Sabbath in our lives have fallen short of what we hoped they would bring. I don't think it's because we don't need Sabbath, but because we haven't really understood the fullness of it.

We first see the concept of Sabbath-rest in the story of creation in Genesis when God rested from the work of creation on the seventh day. God intended it to be a day where no work was done, a day of resting from the busy-ness of life. That's the part of it we're getting right in our current discussions of it.

Leviticus 23:2-3 outlines God's plans for Sabbath:

"There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of Sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord."

Did you catch the phrase in the middle of the commands about not doing any work and resting?

". . . a day of sacred assembly . . ."

Part of God's plan for Sabbath was for his people to gather together. It wasn't just about resting from work; it was also about gathering together with like-minded people - about community.

Even with all the religious aspect of keeping Sabbath the Jews added that weren't in God's original plan, they still had this part right. They gathered together on the Sabbath.

As I study Sabbath in Scripture and compare it to much of the conversation I'm hearing and participating in about it today, I'm more convinced than ever that we're missing a vital piece. And that missing piece is the reason why our efforts at Sabbath fail completely after a short while, or don't seem to bring all that Scripture talks about.

Along with rest, our Sabbath has to include gathering in community with people, with other Christians. Time together to build relationship, to study Scripture, to pray, to enjoy one another's company. I believe that if we began to include this, our experience of Sabbath will change, and our desire for it will grow.

Something we don't Talk about Enough

I've started and deleted this post probably 100 times in the last few months. I haven't actually been sure what to say or how to say it when it comes to talking about what this post is about. But, the prompting that I need to write this won't go away.

Until the last couple of years, I don't think I've ever talked about this about at all - except with a few people that were very carefully chosen. Up to that point, I'd mostly been able to hide what was going on from others, but at that point I couldn't hide it any longer. I had to let other people know, and in the process discovered how freeing it was to share and allow others into that part of my journey.

But, inviting others in didn't come without risks. It required being vulnerable. It required letting others know without knowing how to they would handle that information. It required removing a wall that I've always lived behind with people. It meant I was going to have to decide that the potential stigma of it wasn't going to stop me.

But, it also came with benefits. When it was no longer a secret, some of the power of it was lost. I discovered that being vulnerable about it with the right people actually led to deeper connections with people, and a willingness from them to share their own struggles. Sharing it with others brought a freedom I didn't know it was possible to have.

Sharing it here invites a whole new aspect of it. I don't necessarily get to pick the people who read this and who would now know. I think that's part of what has caused me to start and delete this post so many times. It's more risk to share, but I'm learning the importance of choosing to talk about these things.

I think so much of the stigma that exists around this - especially in the church - exists because we don't talk about it. We have to learn to talk about it. It affects so many more people than we realize. And, the only way we get to truly be able to find what healing looks like for us is to talk about it. We have to bring it out of the dark, so that the light can shine on it.

Mental illness and the conversations we need to have around it are happening more and more in our society, and they're beginning to happen in the church with greater frequency. That's a good thing. We need these conversations to happen, because we need to learn how to handle this better.

I've discovered that when we look around any given church gathering we find ourselves at there are more people around us struggling with it than we realize. Most of the time, we won't even realize they're struggling when we look at them or talk to them. They seem to live pretty normal lives and do all the things we would expect. But, what we don't know, unless they choose to share, is the struggles happening under the surface - the challenges they face to be in that place, to live what we would consider to be a normal life.

That's been me for most of my life. Living with an anxiety disorder. Most of the time I'm still able to manage reasonably well. I've been lucky in that regard - some people have a much more difficult time than me with the same thing. But, that doesn't mean it's always easy for me to be where I am or do what I'm doing. Often is a large group setting I'm hanging on, but not by much. This is one of those places where I've realized the importance of having people in my world who know my struggle. They may not always know exactly what my experience feels like, but I know they care about me and want to be there for me. Most of the time I manage fine and no one looking at me who doesn't know would even guess.

So, what do we do with the whole topic of mental illness and the church?

We need to talk about it.
We need to share.
We need to love.
We need to support.
We need to encourage.
And most of all, we need to be the family for each other that we're called to be in Scripture. That includes all of these things, and so much more.