Calling in Real Time

Author: John Stonestreet and Andrew Carico

In an essay entitled, After Ten Years, German pastor-theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer asked,

Have there ever been people in history who in their time, like us, had so little ground under their feet, people to whom every possible alternative open to them at the time appeared equally unbearable, senseless and contrary to life?

That question still resonates today. In a civilizational moment like ours, so much seems up in the air. Every option can seem compromised. What is the way forward? Or, to borrow a phrase, “How shall we then live?”

Even more, we doubt that we have any role to play in God’s unfolding of human history. It’s easy to think, “Who am I to make a difference? I’m no William Wilberforce. I’m no Bonhoeffer. I’m not one of these great heroes of history.”

Of course, what we do not know, what we cannot know, is whether this moment is a Wilberforce moment or a Bonhoeffer moment. Both men found themselves in pivotal cultural moments, in places where all seemed to be falling apart. Both men worked for change. In the case of Wilberforce, there was renewal. In the case of Bonhoeffer, there was collapse.

Both men faced evil to oppose. Both men saw brokenness they were called to help restore. Each man faithfully responded to the calling of God. Neither man was a failure. The results were, as T.S. Eliot once said, “none of (their) business.” Rather, the results always belong to God.

In his book The Call, Os Guinness observed that most Christians miss a full understanding of calling because they fail to fully reckon with the seriousness of the hour to which they’ve been called. In other words, we are not just called to a ministry, or even to a particular vocation or set of relationships. We are called to this time and this place by the God who is writing the story of history.

The first Christians were called to a time within the Roman Empire in which it was both normal and legal to abandon unwanted newborn children. In a practice known as exposure, especially little girls were left in the wilderness to die. The first Christians, because they believed every single person is made in the image of God, would go out and rescue those children.

They had no idea that by responding to the seriousness of their moment they were changing the course of history. However, decades later, when Roman communities had a demographic crisis of far more men than women, Roman men began to go to church to find wives because, well, there were women there. According to historian Rodney Stark, the acts of Christian faithfulness in rescuing newborns helps to explain the explosive growth of Christianity in the second century.

Like those early Christians, we cannot know what God might do with our obedience. We cannot know if this is a Wilberforce moment or a Bonhoeffer moment.Just a few years ago, those who believed in the reality of male and female were told we were on the “wrong side of history.” And it often felt like we were! Today, in medicine, education, politics, sports, and media, the tide has shifted.

What’s most important is that we stand by what is true and right, regardless of the direction culture shifts. While that can feel overwhelming, we live in this time and place by God’s decree, not by accident.

So, to repeat what T.S. Eliot wrote, “For us, there’s only the trying, and the rest is none of our business.” The rest is none of our business because God is in control of the universe. He is overseeing and orchestrating human history. Our lives are meaningful; He created them that way. He purposed our abilities and talents and relationships for this time and place in history. There is no higher calling for which we could possibly strive than that.

Take a deeper look at the Biblical idea of Calling, as well as Hope, Truth, and Identity, in Truth Rising: The Study.Designed for churches, families, and small groups, Truth Rising: The Study moves Christians from feeling powerless in the face of civilizational decline to embracing and living their God-given calling in this time and this place. Learn more at colsoncenter.org/truth.