What are you hearing?

Text for the week: John 10:1-10

There have been a lot of ways that God has been speaking to us this semester.  What are you hearing?

If you are looking for an answer to that question here, I don’t think I can do that for you.  I can’t dream what God will do in and through you. I’m wired differently than you are, and you should be very grateful for that.  But because of that, there is no formula to follow for the “what” to our dreams. Some would like to say it’s as easy as 1-2-3, but I don’t think so.

Of course, there are similarities about all of our dreams — developing a relationship and heart like God’s, living in community with each other, learning to love as God loves and to see as God sees.  I don’t think I need to go through the whole litany of what we believe, but what we believe shapes what and how we dream. 

Your dream is your dream.  But we don’t chase our dreams in a vacuum.  Some of you are studying to be doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, pastors, engineers, writers, lab technicians, and a number of other occupational callings.  These are the things you are wired to do.  They fit how you are uniquely created, and what you are created to do.  I believe that we are all passionate about different things. 

I hate math. Sorry, Dr. Atkinson, but I do.  Maybe better stated, I don’t do math.  And I’ve tried — trust me, I’ve tried!  That doesn’t mean math is an evil subject sent from the pit of hell to haunt me all the days of my life. (Maybe I’m still festering over that last test in Dr. Atkinson’s class that cost me my A.)

Just because I’m wired in ways that aren’t conducive to math doesn’t mean I’m wired better than someone else; it just means we’re wired differently.  Because we’re wired differently — or gifted differently, to use the biblical term — we will do different things, but still do them for the Kingdom.  The “what” you dream, matches the “how” you are wired, gifted and created.  How will you use your passions for the purpose of the Kingdom?  That is how you begin to answer the question: What are you hearing?

So how do you make your calling about the Kingdom?  I think that’s found in listening and dreaming.  They go hand in hand, because I believe that we can know for certain that everyone has a calling.  And if what we’ve been saying this semester is true, then God will reveal that to you as you listen, and begin to dream His dreams for your life.

What are you hearing?