The Calling

On Friday I was invited to attend The Calling in Glasgow.  It was a national leadership summit for Scotland, creating space to reflect, grow and lead with purpose in business, community and life, organised by the Peter Vardy Foundation.  The Presbytery Clerks were invited alongside members of the Faith Action Programme Leadership Team and other members of the national offices.

It was an intense and inspiring day, with a number of TED-like talks.  A real highlight was watching Dan Walker interview Sir Chris Hoy.  The conversation give an insight into Chris' achievements on the track and all the work he is currently doing to raise awareness around prostate cancer.  He spoke about the impact of his diagnosis and of living in the present.

There was much to take in, but one thing I wanted to share was from a talk give by Jon Acuff.  He was an excellent communicator, with a great sense of humour.  He spoke on the issue of procrastination - something that many of us might be familiar with!  He encouraged us to think about how our mindset can lead to us procrastinating and often what we need is permission to move forward.  He outlined four permissions that we might find helpful:

1. Permission to dream
2. Permission to plan
3. Permission to do
4. Permission to review

If you were to consider what is going on for you right now - in your personal life or in your working life or in your church life - where would any of these permissions help things to be progressed?

Have you stopped dreaming or listening out for God's vision for the future?  Do you know where you are heading?  What are you aspiring towards?  Or have you simply got your head down and are focused on surviving the current season.
This makes me think of Peter's vision in Acts and how it changed the course of the early church.  Or how Jacob's vision of the ladder changed his relationship with God.

Have you got a dream but no plan to put it into action?  Do you need to work out what a first step is?  Do you need someone help you translate an idea or concept into something concrete?
This makes me think of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem.  He was a man with a plan, which involved the whole community in a very clever way.  Of course you'd want to fix the part of the wall directly in front of your own home!

Have you got a plan but are stuck on putting into action?  Are you waiting for the plan to be perfect before you take the first step?
This makes me think of the people of God crossing the Jordan into the promised land.  They had to step into the river before it parted.  It must have taken a lot of faith to do that, but it was the only way to the other side.

Have you been doing something for a while but haven't stopped to consider whether you should still be doing it?
We are so good at starting things and find it so hard to stop things, even when we know, deep down, that their course has run.  Reviewing our activities can give us an opportunity to refresh them and to celebrate something which was for a season and should now come to an end.
This makes me think of Psalm 1, which speaks about people bearing fruit in season.

An earlier speaker in the day, quoted Leo Tolstoy:

"Everyone thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself."

Where might you need a change of mindset to become unstuck?

If you would like to know more about the Calling, check out the website and the resources available: https://app.thecalling.scot/resources.  And sign up to find out more about future events.

Rev Stella