^{“You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you,” said the Lion.
~ C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair}

Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond

What does your kingdom stand against? What is it opposed to, in particular, because to say I’m against evil, you must ask, “What is uniquely given to ‘You’ to oppose evil in a way that nobody else can do. The way you uniquely can do.” And in the same sense what are you meant to create; A beauty of goodness and truth, that is meant to draw people into an even deeper relationship with the goodness of God.
~ Dan Allender, 1952- , therapist, author, professor

Exodus 4:10-17

Most of us use, “I’m waiting for God to reveal His calling on my life,” as a means of avoiding action. Did you hear God calling you to sit in front of the television yesterday? Or to go on your last vacation? Or exercise this morning? Probably not, but you still did it. The point isn’t that vacations or exercise are wrong, but that we are quick to rationalize our entertainment and priorities yet are slow to commit to serving God.
~ Francis Chan, 1967- , author, teacher, preacher

I just want to lie on the beach and eat hot dogs. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.
~ Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner), The Office, Season 3, Episode 23

Calling is where our talents and burdens collide. Our talents are our birthright gifts, the gifts that make our hearts sing, come alive. Our burdens are found in our stories, in what breaks our hearts. God was inviting me to use the gifts that made me come alive, to redeem the things that broke my heart.
~ Rebekah Lyons, writer, speaker, podcaster

We get our calling wrong when we imagine that God needs us, to be the hero of our own story, rather than Christ. Second, we routinely misdiagnose the problem of our world, underestimating the brokenness of sin and overestimating our ability to fix things. Third, our witness of God often depicts a Lord who is domesticated to serve our causes . Fourth, a justifiable focus on external problems can easily blind us to the depth of our complicity in the pain of the human condition.
~ Tyler Wigg-Stevenson, 1977- , Preacher, writer: The World Is Not Ours to Save

Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond

You must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool…

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction, where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth.
~ G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936, Orthodoxy

Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.
~ Blaise Pascal

Psalm 131

Pride juggles with her toppling towers,
They strike the sun and cease,
But the firm feet of humility,
They grip the ground like trees.
~ G. K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse

But the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet recognizes that he may be the object of God’s love precisely because of his shortcomings, can begin to be sincere. His sincerity is based on confidence, not in his own illusions about himself, but in the endless, unfailing mercy of God.
~ Thomas Merton, 1915-1968, Trappist monk, theologian

If I crave happiness, I will receive misery. If I crave to be loved, I will receive rejection. If I crave significance, I will receive futility. If I crave control, I will receive chaos. If I crave reputation, I will receive humiliation. But if I long for God and His wisdom and mercy, I will receive God and wisdom and mercy. Along the way, sooner or later, I will also receive happiness, love, meaning, order, and glory.
~ David Powlison, from Seeing With New Eyes, 1949-2019, Teacher/Counselor

No soul can be really at rest until it has given up all dependence on everything else and has been forced to depend on the Lord alone. As long as our expectation is from other things, nothing but disappointment awaits us.
~ Hannah Whitall Smith, 1832-1911, Speaker in the Holiness movement

Waiting is difficult. It requires an attitude of humility and hope that few of us come by naturally. And so we must cultivate that perspective. If we are going to learn to wait, then we must … wait.
~ Ben Patterson, 1969- , Author/Campus Pastor