A teacher who knows I can turn in a better paper critiques it and calls me to revise. Listening to a popular song about being used brings sudden awareness the lyrics are about me and my boy or girlfriend. Backpacking in Yosemite amid the great mountains, redwoods, and waterfalls calls me to respect and preserve nature so my children and grandchildren see it.
Developing relationships calls me to become my true self. A friend shares a story about his first date. He asks a girl to go out after his basketball game. She agrees to come to the game. When she walks in, the guy goes extreme on the court, running here and there to get the ball. Afterwards, he swaggers over to his date to say hi. She tells him, “You don’t have to do all that to impress me. We already have a date.” This girl calls him to be his true self with her, not some flashy star.
God calls us in the experiences of our everyday lives and friendships. Responding to God’s call requires discernment — sorting through, questioning, weighing what God really wants. Sometimes people come to points in their lives when they hear God’s voice in their minds and hearts making a direction clear.
In the bible God appoints prophets by calling them. The Sunday readings from the Old Testament remember these calls. Last Sunday tells the story of Samuel’s call. He is only a boy when he hears a voice in the night calling his name. The old priest Eli helps him learn how to listen to God’s voice. Samuel becomes a great judge and leader of the people (1 Samuel 3.3-10).
This Sunday the prophet Jonah convinces the people of Nineveh to turn to God, but it takes three nights in the belly of a whale to convince Jonah to follow God’s call.
In Sunday’s gospel Jesus invites Andrew to come and see him, to stay with him for a day. Getting to know Jesus in person makes all the difference to Andrew. He becomes Jesus’ disciple and calls his brother to meet Jesus, too.
Teens think a lot about careers — what extra-curriculars to try in high school, where to go to college, what to study in college. Like Samuel, teens have to discern where God calls them in their dreams, talents, and friendships. Which voice is the voice of God?
Often as teens we experience the first stirrings of our lifelong vocations. God calls each of us — to teach, to marry, to become a priest or religious, to research, to heal, to inspire, to draw, to lead. A decision to write for the school newspaper or to help prepare worship for a teen group may be step one to a journalism career or to ministry in the Church.
Parents, siblings, friends, teachers, coaches — many voices call us to become the whole person we can be. Our Christian traditions call us to treat all others with respect, to love our friends and enemies, to care for the least among us. Our baptisms call us to follow Jesus, to become self-giving, forgiving, justice-seeking disciples.
As we experience and reflect on our lives, calls grow louder. We learn what stirs and inspires us. We meet people we want to be like.
A call from God is always an invitation, not an order. We have to accept the call. We struggle to discern where what we want and what God wants intersect. We hear God’s call in exploring the world around us and dialoging with the voices in our lives.