Called Blog
Thoughts & Musings on Calling
It was about a year ago that I heard from my friend, Dom; he was holding a copy of Called, the first copy I had ever seen. I made my way to Portland that weekend to speak on C. S. Lewis to a room full of folks at Dom's church. It was then that I saw my words in print for the first time.
It's tough to put into words how much that moment meant. That was one year ago this month.
It was about a year ago that Jen and I were getting ready to sit down for dinner at our good friends' Todd & Emily's home in North Carolina when I saw the first artwork for my book cover. It was a surreal moment.
I'll be honest, before seeing the first cover designs, I was afraid of how it might turn out.
What if I don't like it? I remember thinking. What if it looks nothing like what my book is actually about and I have to go back and ask them to change it? I don't want to be that guy.
Fortunately, I was thrilled with how the artwork turned out.
Like many folks my age, I first read Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz in undergrad, when Coldplay was still a new band on the scene, and The Terminator himself had just been elected governor of California. For many of us, Miller's "non-religious thoughts on Christian spirituality," set in the familiar Pacific Northwest I called home, was a rite of passage.
So you can imagine my excitement when, some 10 years later, I stumbled upon a BookPage review that set my new, debut book, Called: My Journey to C. S. Lewis's House and Back Again, alongside Miller's latest work, Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy.
What's the difference between making plans and following those plans versus discerning and following a calling? Or is there even a difference? Is following a calling simply placing a divine stamp of approval on our own plans? (Which just might be the ultimate Christian trump card.)
That's the question I consider in an article I wrote for the current issue of Bible Study Magazine.
What does it mean to be called? More specifically, what does it mean for the Christian to be called?
Does it mean being called to a radical, life-changing adventure? There are a number of recent books that seem to suggest that's exactly what it means.
