Over on Spec Faith, Fred Warren has posted on Christian calling. He’s wrestling with the issue of whether writers have a divine calling. He says:
I’ve heard people describe their motivation for writing this way. “God called me to write.” It always feels a little presumptuous to me. We acknowledge that people are called to full-time ministry, or missionary work, or any one of a number of self-sacrificing vocations–doctors, teachers, firemen, policemen, career military personnel, and so on. But…writers? Fiction writers? Speculative fiction writers?
I’ve often heard writers at Christian conferences say they are called to write. What has always bothered me is that I think they really mean they are called to publish. I know that only one or two out of the five hundred there will actually get a contract. So if God is calling them all to publish, why isn’t he giving them contracts? And then I read some of their stuff and I think, “If God called you, why hasn’t he equipped you?” Because many of them don’t appear to have any talent for writing at all. Many, in fact, can’t write a short piece without switching tenses and POVs constantly. Why then would they suppose they are called to write?
That’s what makes me hesitant to say I’m called to write. If these other writers are blind to their writing sins, why would I think I can see clearly? What if my own writing stinks to high heaven? How can I know that I have talent when so many others think they have talent and I can see so clearly that they don’t? One minute I love my writing, the next minute I hate it. I obviously am unfit to judge the quality of my own writing.
So what’s a poor writer to do? How can she determine if she’s called to write or not?
I believe when God calls us to do a thing, he gives us the time, the money, the energy, the desire, and the talent needed to complete the task. He equips us fully. This does not mean that missionaries won’t be poor and we’ll have no more starving artists. This doesn’t mean if we don’t slide from the womb with the ability to write and paint perfectly we aren’t called to those things. It means God will give us enough food to carry us through one more day. It means we have some talent, a lot of desire, and a willingness to learn. It also means that we have some encouragement from people who know God and from people who know something about the thing we feel called to.
I can relate to the popular idea that calling is a self-sacrificial thing and writing is the fun-hobby-sort-of-thing we do in our spare time. I told my pastor once that I couldn’t feel called to write because I enjoyed it too much. He said, “Oh. I see. You’re one of those hair shirt people. You think God only calls us to do things we hate. You think we glorify God only when we’re miserable.”
Yikes. What an impoverished view of God I held. I was, in effect, accusing him of being a harsh taskmaster and I was burying my one talent in the ground, afraid that it was too small to do any good and that God had never intended me to invest it and would not bless my efforts to make it grow.
One of the best lines, EVER: “If God called you, why hasn’t he equipped you?” Really enjoyed this post!
Vicky Alvear Shecter´s last [type] ..Cleopatra Action-Figure at the Ballet
Good one. So true.
Great discussion of that whole issue of how God equips us to do His will, Sally. That’s so easy to forget, especially as it may be years or a lifetime in the making.
“I can relate to Fred’s idea that calling is a self-sacrificial thing and writing is the fun-hobby-sort-of-thing we do in our spare time.” — Just to be clear, that’s more the conventional/traditional wisdom on the issue, not my opinion, though in moments of self-doubt it can sound pretty convincing to me.
Fred Warren´s last [type] ..What’s Going On- 3-24-2011
Sorry, Fred. I misunderstood. I’ll edit that bit so people who don’t bother to read the comments won’t be left with my misunderstanding of the issue.
Thanks Suzan. And, Vicky, I’m glad you liked that line. I’m kind of fond of it myself, I guess. There is always a little bit of snark in me trying to break out.
I’m glad you added the part about people not coming fully equipped from the womb because I tend to think a lot of the people who say they’ve been called to write, are. They have to put in the time, though, to get it right. And they have to learn that their audience might not be what they assumed.
After all, I was one of them. I knew God’s call, at least to complete a particular project, and yet I didn’t know how much work it would take. I figure the other folks will get it sooner or later, just like I did.
Rebecca LuElla Miller´s last [type] ..God In A Box
meh…maybe. I’m skeptical. I wonder why so many people feel called to write and called to sing and so few people feel called to scrub toilets at the church.
In the end we can’t know who has been called to do what. But just because you were called to write a book doesn’t mean most who think they’ve been called really have been called. I don’t think this is wholly a private matter between God and the person called (or not called, depending). Normally, when one is considering whether he’s been called or not, he should look to see if he’s been equipped. If he hasn’t been equipped, he should probably rethink his desire and see if it really is from God.
Normally.
Of course, God does call the weak and the poor (the ones who don’t look like they are equipped–the Gideons) and he glorifies himself by working mightily through them. The thing about the Gideons is that they are usually saying, “Who me? You want me to do what? Are you crazy? I’m the youngest son of the smallest family of the smallest tribe. How can I muster an army?”
That’s very different from people who have very little talent for writing saying, “God called me to write this book and it’s going to change the world.”
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