I thought about posting an excerpt the following post, but it’s short and you should just read the whole thing.
This goes in line with what I wrote in an earlier post commenting on Passivity in the Church. The root of passivity in the Christian walk I think is the lack of identity as God’s called and sent people. As a college minister, I frequently hear questions about calling to a job/life decision–“should I be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer? What am I called to do?”–which are all significant questions.
I have found, however, that students predominantly have exchanged the idea of basic obedience to our effectual calling and new identity as Christians with their specific vocation to a job. The result has been that, more often than not, a job is THE determining factor in how an individuals life is oriented.
This isn’t a student’s fault, however, but in many ways the result of cultural syncretism with the American dream. We (myself included) often cannot see outside of our own culture to understand that our personal vocation is fundamentally subservient to the call to global discipleship (Matthew 28:18-20, Matthew 24:14), and therefore don’t orient our lives toward God’s purposes.
What if this generation of students asked the question “how can I obey God with my gifts and skills to reach panta ta ethne, or all the people groups?” rather than injecting God into their life trajectory? The call to discipleship is most often a radical departure from the plan we have for ourselves, and requires asking a fundamentally different set of questions.
I pray this generation would be the one who understand their identity, asks questions based on that identity, and obeys God radically to the ends of the earth!
