“…one can scarcely improve on the formula Once upon a time.” (J.R.R. Tolkien, Tree and Leaf)
We’ve asked ourselves and others we trust the question, “What’s my story?” We’ve reflected on our past, our talents, our training, and our passions, hoping and needing to discover clues to that elusive reality we at STS refer to as “our calling of service.” We’ve entered into our own story to figure out how we want it to turn out. But we can’t stop there.
We need to keep in sight the pivotal connection Buechner makes between our “deep gladness” and “the world’s deep hunger,” because that’s where the proverbial rubber must meet the road for us to live out our callings of service, but there’s something else we should consider first—our birthright as human beings. We need to consider how our own relatively small stories fit within the larger epic story of humanity, because certain clues to our vocation in the 21st century can only be found within the scope of the long-ago story that hints at who we are and why we’re here.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (the book of Genesis)
This simple, yet powerful prelude to humanity’s first conscious breath offers us something we often fail to consider when we grapple with vocational questions—context. Part of our problem, as we’ve already pointed out, is that the vocational questions we normally ask are devoid of this larger, inherent context, which says our story doesn’t begin with us, but with Creation, for those of us who can accept it, the Creator, and most importantly for our purposes here, with a special Calling.
“The LORD God planted an orchard in the east, in Eden; and there he placed the man he had formed…to care for it and maintain it…The Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.”
“…God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I now give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food…It was so. God saw all that he had made – and it was very good!” (the book of Genesis)
We’re creatures made by God, made in God’s image, a crowning masterpiece. We are meant to rule, which contrary to our later autocratic and destructive tendencies, means to tend and steward and care for each other and God’s good Creation. That’s who we are and why we are here on this beautiful, battered planet.
“I’ve discovered I’ve got this preoccupation with ordinary people pursued by large forces.” (Steven Spielberg)
This larger story has never existed in a vacuum. It was first told to a multitude of escaped slaves wandering in an unforgiving desert, a people their former Egyptian masters and new frightened neighbors called “Habiru” or “Hebrews.” Led by the prophet-statesman Moses, they were learning to call themselves “Israel,” which means “struggles with God.” The story scarred onto their backs, the story they had lived for generations was characterized by mis-rule, by divinely sanctioned oppression visited on the poor, by the helpless made into fodder for an empire, by a ruler bent on hoarding power and erecting monuments to himself.
In this “new” story of identity and meaning, they heard that the world came about not from the bloody warfare or bodily emissions of deities, but from special proclamations of creative power and potential, and that humanity existed not simply to provide food and amusement for the gods, but to subdue and rule and shape the good world in creative service to the true High King.
They heard the later call to their forefather Abraham, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you. Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing…and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name.”
Though they wandered in a scorching desert of corporate and economic uncertainty, their story of beginnings told them they were heirs of the mantle given in Eden and later offered to Abraham, a mantle that gave worth and value and meaning to all the people and to each individual, demonstrating that the actions of one could affect the many. Having been redeemed through a great exodus, the children of Israel discovered they lived in an unfolding story of beginnings, in which they were now called to be a light to all the world, to be a signpost of healing and wholeness in a world turned upside down.
This “larger” story’s hopeful notes echo even into the 21st century, having reached into our deserts of uncertainty to inspire the birth and reform of nations, as well as the rebirth of individuals and communities. Whether we fit into this narrative of hope as modern-day children of Israel, as followers of God in the way of Jesus, or as people who arrive at the worth and uniqueness of people and of our world some other way, this is our story.
We are all “image-bearers” called to care for the world around us and for the needs of others as well as ourselves. It’s why we exist! It fundamentally changes how we should look at our stories and ultimately how we live our lives.
For myself as a follower of Jesus, I find the “larger” story eloquently expressed in Jesus’ message, “Now is the time…The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the good news,” and potently embodied in his life, characterized by healing the sick, feeding the hungry and challenging oppression in all its ugly forms. Jesus was many things, not least a prophet heralding the arrival of a new age on earth, a new chapter in the continuing story of the ages, which for me and many others, points primarily not to escape from this world, but to the whole grand project of reclamation and healing we are all meant to help work for here on earth. That’s what he was calling people to believe in and give their lives to, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary that it would or could never happen. (I have a little more to say about this at the end of the “Our Story” page.)
Regardless of your faith perspective, hopefully you can agree that there is a bigger story and that we are somehow all a part of it, and that that reality should shape how we understand ourselves, our lives and whatever specific calling with which we may have been entrusted. One of the reasons STS exists is to help tell the stories of people in the midst of that shaping and re-shaping process. They are doing some really amazing things. Click here to read their stories and be inspired to re-shape your own story.
