Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
How Does God Lead? {Reflections}
Can you really miss a divine calling, or is it more like a GPS guiding us back on track when we stray? Join me, Ryan, as we explore this idea through the story of Moses and the burning bush. We'll dig into the concept of divine guidance and how it resembles a modern GPS—offering direction rather than condemnation when we face life's detours. Drawing from Jeremiah 18's imagery of a potter reshaping clay, we discuss how God ingeniously works with our imperfections, illustrating that there's not necessarily a single path for us to follow, but rather a multitude of paths God can shape with wisdom and love.
As the conversation unfolds, we discover how to find our deep gladness and align it with the needs of the world. Reflecting on personal experiences, such as my journey to becoming a pastor, we'll uncover how to tap into what truly brings us joy and fulfillment. By examining our unique passions and wiring, we can uncover life-giving activities that allow us to make meaningful contributions. Listen in to find out how aligning your desires with God's will can lead to a more fulfilled life. Whether joining us at Central in Elk River or participating online, this episode encourages you to explore your innate gifts and make a positive impact on the world.
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What is up everybody? My name is Ryan and welcome to our Reflections podcast. Hey, one of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of I love Moses in that story, and there's a story about Moses, who's this ancient man? And he's walking around in the desert one day and he sees this bush that's burning, that is not being consumed, it's got flames coming out of it, but it isn't being burnt up, which is an incredible story. And then God, anyway, the story goes on and God, the divine, begins to speak to Moses from this burning bush and gives Moses this very specific calling, like this thing, to do, this plan for his life. And then Moses goes, essentially after a long time of fighting with God, but he goes and does it. And I always used to think about that, like, is that how God calls us? Does God have a very specific plan for us, like A, b, c and then D for our lives? And it's like this very specific thing that he wants us to do. Is that how God leads us and guides us? And if it's the case that God does that, can we miss the call of God? Is it one of those deals where we can like, just like, let's say, moses walked by the bush that day, would he have missed the calling of God entirely, like, sorry Moses, you're kind of done for and whoops, sorry buddy, anyway. So over the course of the last many years I've been thinking a lot about this how does God lead us? What is his calling anyway? What is the vocation? Now I wanted to say just a few things about it and hopefully this will help a little bit.
Speaker 1:But I heard this wonderful analogy recently. I'm doing Alpha at our church, which has been wonderful, and they use this analogy in one of the Alpha times. I think the night was called how Does God Lead Us, or something like that. And the guy in the video. He says it's kind of like an iPhone. If you're walking around downtown Manhattan or Minneapolis or wherever you live, and you're on your phone and you're getting directions, that's kind of like the call of God on your life, like God directing you, leading you and guiding you. But if you're walking down the road and it's like, hey, take a right and you take a left, what happens is the phone recalibrates right and they'll say, oh, okay, at the next, right, take a right and it sort of redirects you from that misstep you had. It doesn't say like oh you idiot, sorry, you'll never get to the park now, you dummy. No, it's sort of just gently and actually very I don't know positively, just sort of re-engages where you are and gives you a brand new set of directions from where you went, and I love that. That's such a great analogy for how I think God leads us. I don't think God, if you take a misstep, one direction, the wrong way or the other way, that God's like that's it, you idiot, I'm done with you. And instead I think he's sort of like God is smart enough and wise enough and in tune enough with us and even our own idiosyncrasies and psychological makeup that God can just simply redirect us and re-guide us and, like a phone, recalibrate us and be like okay, hey, at the next right, go ahead and take a right. Ryan, I could see that you might've gotten lost there. Let's figure this out.
Speaker 1:And in fact there's this great Bible verse in Jeremiah 18, where this exact thing is happening. It says the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah and it says go down to the potter's house and I'll give you a message. So God tells Jeremiah go to the potter's house, this guy who's a potter, and I'm going to teach you something. And so when he goes down there he sees the potter at the potter wheel and the potter's making this clay pot, and when he's doing so the clay, it says, becomes marred in his hands. Maybe if you've ever worked with clay you know this can happen. You're making this bowl out of clay and it just won't work because of I don't know a number of reasons. I'm not a potter, but I've been told it could be like the density of the clay, or there's too many air bubbles, and so you can chuck that clay and throw it away or you can destroy it by new clay. But what Jeremiah says is it says the potter was shaping this clay and it becomes marred in his hands. So the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
Speaker 1:I love that verse. It's like the potter is like I want to make you into a cup, but the cup is like no, I don't want to be a cup, I want to be a bowl. And the potter's like all right, I can work with that because I'm the potter. So I make you into this beautiful bowl. However, it seems sort of best to the potter, and that's kind of how I think God is with us, that God has. I don't know, maybe it's not just one thing that you're supposed to do, like Moses, but there's a number of things you could do, and maybe in one point in your life I might move to Saudi Arabia and start an orphanage Okay, and maybe some things change over time, or you get married or some things, and maybe God's like okay, now we'll do this instead. I don't know, but I love that verse that God is smart enough and wise enough to make us into something, even despite our own kinds of things in our own lives that don't go perfectly.
Speaker 1:I also heard this one verse quote that always helped alleviate some pressure on me and my life and my own calling, and it's this. I forget who said it, I would tell you, but I forget. But they said that your desire to do the will of God is, in fact, the will of God. I'll say it again your desire to do God's will is, in fact, god's will. So the minute you say to yourself or to God hey, god, I'm going to turn my life over to you, whatever you want, I'm game, I'm open. At that point it's like God's like yo, let's go. God is like just I mean utterly, that was what God wanted. It was just for you to kind of open yourself up to whatever God wanted. And then, the minute you do, it's like, all right, let's go.
Speaker 1:What do you want to do now? An orphanage in Saudi Arabia? Do you want to go and do some hurricane relief work in Florida? Do you want to go teach snowboarding to troubled youth in Colorado? I have no idea. What do you want to do? And Frederick Buechner says it beautifully. He says that your calling or your vocation in life is the point where your deep gladness meets the world's greatest need. And so it does mean then you have to figure out what is your deep gladness. I was talking to someone just the other day I go. You have to figure out what are you good at. What do you like? How are you wired? What burns in you? What can you do that you never get tired of doing? Maybe you get physically tired, but you love doing it.
Speaker 1:For me, I've always loved talking about God. When I was a young boy, we went to this big event called Acquire the Fire. You might remember this youth event and the guy, ron Lewis, was the preacher. He was preaching the sermon and he was super engaging and he had pyrotechnics and fun graphics and it was just amazing. But he gave us all a book with his notes in it and then it was like his sermon was verbatim in this notebook and we would fill in the blanks to kind of follow along. Well, I took that sermon out. I must've been like 12 years old. I took his sermon, I took it home and like later that week my mom and my sister were gone and I was in my apartment and I I I took his sermon out, I gave my, I built like a little pulpit and I preached his sermon like verbatim, the one that he just gave to the couches and the microwave and the chairs in my apartment. And I remember like I vividly remember this and it was exhilarating. I don't know what that was all about, but as I got older I used to love talking with folks about like philosophy and theology and God, and I don't know if I knew half what I was saying, but I really loved it and I began to feel like I had this compassion towards people. And then I don't know, here I am all these years later and I'm a pastor. I take care of people and I preach and I teach and I do podcasts and I absolutely love it.
Speaker 1:So what are the things that are alive? Where are the edges hot for you? What do you like to do? How are you wired? Find that, your deep gladness, and then how can you use that to make just a big dent in the world for good? Where can that thing meet the world's greatest need? But even before that, know that, look, your desire to just do God's will, to kind of turn your life over, say, hey, god, your will, not my will, be done. Then God's kind of already won, you can do whatever you want. And then you're like, okay, now what am I good at? And then how can I use this to impact the world? One last thing I'll say.
Speaker 1:There's this great book called Sleeping with Bread by the Lin family L-I-N-N. It's an incredible book, but get it. It's a short, quick read. But in there they say that the will of God is to do more of the things that bring you life. So they said the will of God is to do more of the things that bring you life. So it begs the question what things bring you life? Now, of course they don't mean like man, I love beating up little kids. That brings me life? No, that would be contrary to God's will.
Speaker 1:Okay, so those things, just chuck those out. I love to spray paint on windows at Starbucks. Okay, don't do that. But like what? Really? What are the things that bring you life? And it takes some time to discern this, but, like every day, where was their energy? Where did I come to life? Where did I wake up? Where was I like on fire in my day?
Speaker 1:Write that stuff down and take note of the things that keep bringing you life and then, like I said in my last podcast, follow the rabbit. Just keep doing more of those things and watch what happens and begin to shape your life around those things and just see what happens. Watch what happens and begin to shape your life around those things and just see what happens. So that's, I think, in some ways, how God leads the iPhone. You know rerouting the potter and the clay, you know the desire to do God's will is God's will. And just do more of those things that bring you life and find how you're wired and use that to bring good to the world and then keep your walkie-talkie on, because God will lead you as you go. I think he will.
Speaker 1:So, okay, hope that was helpful. Love you guys. Talk to you soon, peace. Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends. And don't forget you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 8.30, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering. Or you o'clock our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clcelkriverorg. Peace.
