Book Review: Courage and Calling, Gordon T. Smith, IVP, 1999
Review:
Courage and Calling, Embracing your God-given potential covers a topic germane to all cross-cultural missionaries. Smith’s experience in this field comes from his background as a missionary and an academic administrator in Canada and the Philippines. His gifts as an academic and an administrator carry over to his writing style, however, making his writing pedantic and belabored with redundancy as he is very careful to cover the jot and tittle of each topic. Therefore, it is not surprising to this reviewer that the book is already out of print. However, Smith has many important insights for the believer who longs to make a difference in the world and who seeks to live out the God-given calling unique to him or her. In this review Smith’s gems of wisdom are excerpted for personal reflection and group discussion. Questions are at the end of the summary.
Dr. M.L. Codman-Wilson, 6/7/2011
Summary:
1. The thesis of the book is that each person is created by God with a calling to serve God in the world. The distinction between sacred and secular vocations is false – “all vocations are sacred because God’s kingdom is not merely spiritual….God calls and enables his children to be his kingdom agents within every sphere of life and society. Each vocation reflects but one avenue by which God, through word and deed, is accomplishing the establishing of his kingdom” (25). Likewise, each believer “has worth and significance…Christians are not merely “channels of God, they are to be co-workers with God” (26-27). The book’s purpose, therefore is to “help people achieve their potential in God’s service, to encourage them to “fan the flame of the gift of God” (2 Tim.1:6) so they can make a difference for God in the world” (32-33).
2. Vocation is not synonymous with a career or job or position. It is “living a life congruent with who we are, how God has gifted us, graced us and thus called us.” (34) Therefore we must know ourselves – answering 4 questions:
a. What are my gifts and abilities? (He uses Romans 12:6-8 as the jumping off point to discuss spiritual gifts)
b. What is the deepest desire of my heart, i.e. “What brings you greatest joy; what impresses you to the core of your heart and calls you to be or do something?” (42)
c. Where do I personally sense the needs of the world and feel its brokenness?
d. What is my unique personality and temperament? (38). (He recommends using the MBTI- Meyers Briggs Temperament Indicator).
“That said, it is in our communal associations with others that we find ourselves…Self-knowledge
happens best in community” (48).
3. “As a married couple, each one needs to answer the questions of self-knowledge. But he calls readers to rethink particularly the woman’s role. It is not just to support her husband. “Husbands need to come back to the extraordinary words of the apostle Paul (Eph.5) that the husband is to give himself for his wife so she can flourish – i.e, to enable her to discover, enhance and fulfill her vocation, a vocation that will certainly be a compliment to mine but which will have an internal and inherent integrity and focus of its own” (53).
4. “The need doesn’t constitute the call” so we have to be able to say ‘no’. We are to get our direction from Jesus – His yoke is easy, his burden light. “If a yoke is easy, it means that it fits us. It is designed around the contours of who we are. It is congruent with the character, strengths, potential and personality that we have before God” (54). “In the end we embrace this call, this purpose because this, so help us God, is who we are. In the end there is something about which we say “This I must do,” regardless of whether we have parental approval, regardless of whether we get praise or financial return. It is at this point that we understand we must give up our lives for the sake of others, for only then will we find our lives (Mt.16:25).We accept this calling as that which God has placed on our heart…This is vocational integrity and personal congruence” (55).
5. When we embrace God’s unique calling for our lives, we are freed to accept our limitations, move beyond illusion about who we are and take responsibility for our own giftedness (65). We are freed to do everything as unto the Lord (Col3:23). That includes excellence (doing our best and being freed from feeling diminished by our areas of non-strength or the things we do not do well) (97), truth, diligence (persistence and thoroughness), generosity and Sabbath rest (which gives balance and perspective) (85). We are freed from the “misguided sense of duty – the ‘shoulds’ and expectations that often pressurize people into compliance” (104), and the temptations of power, material security and prestige that sidetrack us from our calling. We are freed from comparing ourselves to one another (97).
6. We can go forward vocationally when we are retrospective about the past and see where God is working and when we are fully present in the now – to respond with flexibility to our changing circumstances and to seek above all to bring glory to our Creator (79). “We do not live in disappointment and bitterness because we were not treated as we think we deserve to be treated…. We let the past go, forgiving and without recrimination, embracing the possibilities in our today and tomorrow” (104,111). We acknowledge our fears and “move beyond convention, compliance, intimidations, and doing what’s comfortable and secure” (120). This takes courage (hence the title of the book), “qualified by wisdom, moral integrity, gratitude, humility and patience as we keep trusting ourselves and our future to God while we are taking full advantage of the present” (120). As long as we live “connected lives” by walking together and encouraging one another, we provide inner strength to one another (124).
7. Our potential for vocational growth and long term vocational vitality exists in direct proportion to our capacity to…intentional, mindful, continuous learning as a life-long discipline” (124, 127). Life is fundamentally about 2 things – our work and our relationships…the goal is to be effective at what we are called to do…but also to be people of highly fruitful and meaningful relationships (127)..Maturity is found not only in mastering each of these aspects individually but also in the capacity to resolve the demands of both, to be effective in both work and relationships simultaneously” (129).
8. “Ask yourself what approach to learning (cognitive, social, by doing, by observation) you enjoy and maximize that but be open to learning through each approach. Each way of learning is strengthened when we allow ourselves to be evaluated and reviewed by the critiques and observations of others” (135). Mentors are key. “The genius of good mentoring is the capacity to bring hope and encouragement, believing in people so that they can learn, grow and embrace all that they are called to be” (135). “We need to learn from past experience through observation – seeing what is going on in and around us, and through improvisation, taking what we have learned from experience and adapting it to a new life situation”(140). The flexibility of improvisation helps us fulfill our calling in all stages of life.
9. “It is clear we need to make sense of difficulty and see what significance it has for our capacity to fulfill a vocation. God is good but neither the world nor the church is fair. All people will experience the brokenness of the world intersecting with their lives in a thousand and one ways” (143-144). “When our identity is in Christ, we will experience difficulty, setbacks and disappointments…But although Christians…experience the same pain others encounter, there is a difference: we suffer with hope (Rom. 8) Our capacity to be life and grace to others comes through our very experience of difficulty (2 Cor.4:8-12). And in Romans 5 we are reminded that suffering, setbacks and disappointments are the very means by which we are formed into people of maturity and strength. But everything depends on our response. Suffering and pain either break us or make us” (145). We must therefore transcend any sense of victimization with its self-absorption and self-pity and resultant cynicism or bitterness.
10. “What does it take to respond with grace to difficulty and pain? …We must practice forgiveness (starting with our parents) for the wrongs of our past in actions…for the narrowness of a fundamentalist perspective” (148-149). We also need to extend forgiveness to others including organizations that have hurt or wronged or failed us and we must forgive ourselves. We must come to terms with losses and limitations (even dashed hopes and expectations) and embrace the opportunities that are before us rather than bemoan what might have been…This means we live in terms of God’s providential love, provision and direction” (151).
11. Emotional maturity and resilience is our primary resource when it comes to vocational identity and development (157). Emotional health means:
a. “You know your feelings and are able to draw on them in making significant decisions; you manage your emotions – you are not managed by your emotions.
b. You are able to persist in the face of setbacks and disappointments and to channel your emotional energy toward worthy goals…you are willing to live with delayed gratification.
c. You are able to handle the emotional aspect of relationships with grace. Your own emotional state does not undercut your capacity to listen to and identify with others. You can speak openly and frankly with grace, patience and tact and say what needs to be said even if it stirs up the emotions of others. You have the capacity to handle the anger of other people with grace. You are not paralyzed by fear of other people’s responses.
d. You are able to express your emotions honestly in appropriate settings.
e. You don’t use emotional blackmail to get your way, threatening…or withholding favors or good will. You respond with openness and honesty but also grace toward those with whom you differ….People are not strait-jacketed by fear of your emotional reaction.
f. You can respond to both praise (and not be inflated by it) and criticism (and not be crushed by it) with grace – not blame-shifting, not showing undue defensiveness.
g. You can respond with sorrow to pain but will come back to an emotional center of joy – joy rooted in God’s providential care and hope in the ultimate triumph of justice and peace” (158-160) Returning to that emotional center is a mark of emotional health and resilience.
12. “So how do we get to this emotional health? Through massive honesty with what we are feeling and what is going on inside of us. We acknowledge our anger, for example but we refuse to live in it…We will experience loss. We need to mourn our loss honestly and move on – no denial but allow God’s consolation to heal our heart, we don’t stay stuck in our anger or regret…There is no other way to discover and sustain emotional growth and health than with a strong vertical connection to God and a vital horizontal connection with others” (162).
13. “Since we fulfill our vocation in partnership with others, we must develop the capacity to work with others in the context of organizational life and to recognize the organization in which we are likely to be most effective” (164). Mature character is the most critical characteristic that enables us to work effectively within organizations – i.e, humility and courage to live by our own conscience and the ability to work with others with grace, patience and kindness. This means being a good listener, being dependable, able to respect others and sustain their dignity and reputation” (165-166).
14. “We must learn to think globally and act locally” – i.e., understand the whole as it relates to the mission, the values, and the purpose of the organization while …always seeking ways we can creatively do more on our part with our limited resources. “Nowhere is there more danger for selfish patterns of behavior than when it comes to money” (168). So think in terms of “complementary capacities, learning to trust and depend on others, work collaboratively as we share power and come to our working relationships with a commitment to empower others, to see how we can help others to be effective in their work” (172). We do not by-pass others’ input in decision-making nor act and speak across gender lines in patronizing, defensive, manipulative and innuendo-filled ways (173). We need to work within the boundaries of the organization, “accepting what we can’t change, and taking on with excellence what we can change. It is easy to identify what is not present and what is not good and what you wish would make an organization better. But true genius has the capacity to identify the strengths and work from them, to build on them and celebrate them…rather than complaining about what is not there...Working from the strengths makes us catalysts for positive change in the organizations in which we work.
15. “Change is a constant in any organization…We thrive amidst changes when we maintain a fundamental flexibility, a capacity to adapt to those changes and see them as opportunities for growth and learning. Some changes mean that we will have to leave an organization but most changes call us to adapt, to adjust the way that we exercise our strengths in a particular organization at a particular time” (175-176).
16. “To thrive vocationally within organizations we must find fundamental congruence between our own values and vision and that of the organization (176). But there is never to be ultimate loyalty to an organization. It is not a family. People leave or are terminated. Other new opportunities arise. The organization cannot give you adequate love, acceptance and community – that must come from your family, friends and church. “But for the time that people are present in an organization, they need to give their best at this time and place” (178-179).
17. When is the appropriate time to resign? Not because we can’t face the difficulties. “Many times when we make a move in order to get away from problems, we merely exchange one set of difficulties for another” (176). “Many people’s personal strength of character is never adequately developed because they have not worked through situations or problems or crises but have, for various reasons, always run from difficulty” (179). But resignation is valid when we feel we have completed what we came to the organization to do or when we are no longer effective (either because of lack of support or because what we have to contribute can best be used elsewhere), or because we are asked to do things that violate our conscience or we have debilitating expectations placed on us. Failure to resign when it is the appropriate decision can be due to the fear of what others will think or financial insecurity issues or “an unwillingness to let go or lose something. Resignation will be a small death. It may mean we lose respect of some people” (182). This is why appropriate resignation takes courage.
18. Finally, to thrive vocationally we need to live an ordered life. “The principles of an ordered life presuppose the three levels of understanding with which we think about vocation: the fundamental call or vocation to be a Christian; the specific or unique call on each life, our purpose for being; and the daily duties and responsibilities to which we are called today – our immediate priorities” (186). We need to manage ourselves with three principles:
a. “Sustain clarity about what is really important” and prioritize your day accordingly.
b. “Graciously accept the limitations of life, i.e, the interruptions, disruptions, delays, unforeseen developments;” be able to say no.
c. Create spaces in your work schedule for balance – i.e, “create margins in the day between activities (arrive early at meetings so that you are centered and at peace with yourself); begin the day with prayer and reflection and as you are planning your day, find spaces in your schedule to collect your thoughts, quiet your heart and respond to unforeseen developments” (189).
19. “The two anchors needed to live and work with a life-sustaining joy are community and solitude. “We need the grace of community. We discern our vocation in community, and we fulfill it as we are anchored in mutual interdependence with others within community. Furthermore, we negotiate our vocation with others – with our spouse, with the community of faith, with people with whom we live and work – taking into consideration their actual needs and circumstances. No vocation is fulfilled in a vacuum apart from the needs and experiences of others with whom we live and work…All vocations are communal in character” (190). But since some communities are oppressive and since we “can so easily get caught up in the expectations of others, we need solitude to encounter the One to whom we owe our ultimate allegiance, to One who alone can give us security, identity and purpose” (190). It is through the “the grace of conversation in community and the encounter with God in solitude that we can increasingly become people of courage in a disheartening and broken world. These two anchors enable us to know and embrace with courage what we are called to; they enable us to live and work with integrity, with centered lives that find their focus, purpose and strength in Jesus Christ” (196).
Questions for Reflection or Discussion:
1. Why do you think it takes courage to fulfill your unique calling to serve God in the world?
2. How does the community play a vital role in finding and fulfilling one’s calling?
3. Smith says we are “not to bemoan what might have been” nor bemoan our own limitations and “non-strengths” - (he prefers that term to “weaknesses”). How do you get past these two major negatives in your life and in your community?
4. He lists seven aspects of emotional health and vitality. Discuss how they can be demonstrated in practical work situations you face.
5. How does your team handle the balance between the overall need and vision of your collective mission with the specific resource needs and vision of individual team members?
6. How does your team deal with the changes that are part of your organization or part and parcel of living out your mission objectives in your context?
7. What could make adaptation to change easier?
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