The Call by Os Guiness

"Have you longed? Have you searched? Have you listened"?

In my ealier post "The Call", I quoted a couple of paragraphs from one of the books I'm currently reading - The Call by Os Guiness. Today, I got permission from Soph to post her thoughts which, along with Roz's, inspired me to finally get my hands on the book.

So far from what I've read, I express their sentiments completely. It is a great read - articulate, challenging, and deeply raw. I'm about one tenth of the way through, and if I had all the time in the world, I suspect I wouldn't be putting it down.

Here is her blog in all it's glory.

I just spent the better part of my weekend rereading one of my favourite Christian books - The Call by Os Guiness.

To explain why I like this book is difficult as there's so much I could write about. Guiness basically writes about our purpose in life as Christians as a grand Calling that every Christian receives once they accept Jesus into their lives. I know this sounds a lot like the sentimental, self-help books that often disguise themselves as Christian, but I assure you that this book is far from it. Real, passionate, faithful and brutally honest, it carves away at the things that hinder our response to God's call and inspires us to become true followers of Christ:

First and foremost we are called to Someone (God), not to something (such as motherhood, politics or teaching) or to somwhere (such as the inner city or Outer Mongolia). Or secondary calling, considering who God is as sovereign, is that everyone, everwhere and in everything should think, speak, live and act entirely for him.

What I particularly like is Guiness' rare gift of foresight. He moves beyond the factionalism that often divides our faith to come to a new understanding of what it means to follow Christ, writing:

The fallacy of particularism stems from the fact that God has not spoken definitively to us about everything. Obviously he did not intend to. It is an error for Christians to make relative what God has made absolute. But it is equally an error for Christians to make absolute what God has left relative. As G. K Chesterton wrote, "If there is one thing worse than the modern weakening of major morals it is the modern strengthening of minor morals." This point means that there is no one Christian form of politics, any more than there is one Christian form of poetry, raising a family, running an economy or planning a retirement. Many ways are definitely not Christian, but no one way alone is.

I definitely agree. Guiness puts into words what I've been trying to express and experience in my Christian life over the past year: the simple unity of brother and sister upon the premise of Jesus Christ alone. How much richer would our fellowship be if we could just stand united! I don't want to have to abandon my thirst for excellent Bible teaching in order to outwardly express my spiritual joy as a Christian, or forget about the preaching of the Word in order to actively show God's love for our society. Sometimes I feel like everything is gridlocked, as people are intent on saying that you're "either this or that" rather than exploring how we can be both (which is closer to the calling of God and futher from "diluting the truth" than we may think).

Guiness really expressed this for me in his discussion of the term "spiritual discipline":

Neither of the two terms in "spiritual discipline" comes easily to us as modern people - we are by nature either spiritual or disciplined (sidepoint - how true! We are either "into spiritual stuff" and therefore supposedly lax towards the rigorous duty of Christian life, or so driven by discipline that we are "spiritually hollow". Why not both?) But if we see discipline as the necessary training we undertake to help us do what we cannot do by direct ordinary effort, spiritual discipline operates on essentially the same principle as training for athletics or learning to play a musical instrument.

There's so much more I got out of this book, which also deals with individualism, the love of money, conceit, spiritual pride and laziness. Personally, I found his chapter on calling/conceit really helpful for me, as well as the chapter on sloth:

The sin of sloth, according to Dorothy Sayers, is "the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and only remains alive because there is nothing it would die for.

I think everyone thinking of working full time within the church should read it, or better yet, anyone who is serious about their faith and wants to just live full time as a Christian. It's an awesome book that will teach, humble and inspire you!

[Sunday, November 21, 2004]