April 17th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Listening to Rev. Wilken’s monologue on vocation reminded me of a recent conversation with the older daughter.
We were in the kitchen unpacking from the Cleveland trip: Mom, myself, and the older daughter. I had asked her to do something simple, taking something upstairs. She got mad and started crying, then angrily said, “You always give me chores to do!”
I felt pity for my poor baby and picked her up. “Listen to me,” I said. “First, that’s not true. We just came back from a fun weekend in Cleveland. But most of all, you are always going to have stuff to do. Mom and Dad always have stuff to do. The stuff we give to you is good for you to do. We do not tell you to do bad things. When you do what we ask you to do, it helps Mom and Dad out. ”
Thus extends the 5-year-old’s exposure to vocation. She’s already heard that God puts food on our table through the efforts of Mom and Dad. She’s also heard that God gave her and her sister to Mom and Dad so that we can take care of them. This time she learned that we give her good things to do, as best we can gauge that she can do them.
It won’t take her long to figure out that in a similar fashion God gives us good things to do, right in front of our noses. Food and shelter must be secured, health must be maintained, education must be continued, and our spiritual care must be frequently renewed through God’s chosen means.
It is thankworthy that there are things we can do and humbling that these things come in conflict. At the same time I tell my daughter there are good things for her to do, I’m reminded that I don’t do them as I ought. We are still living lives of repentance. We leave to God the things which are good for him to do: to justify, sanctify, and keep us in the true faith.
