Clipping In

November 18, 2012
Pentecost 25, Proper 28 (Year B)

On Monday I got back from a conference sponsored by the Episcopal Church Pension Fund.  It’s a conference that clergy get invited to after they’ve been in their ministry for a while to give us a chance to be apart from everything and evaluate how things are going in four areas of our lives:  vocation, spirituality, health, and finances.  They are called “Credo” conferences, which in Latin literally means “I give my heart.”  And my Credo conference truly lived up to its name. I got the rare and wonderful opportunity to think deeply about how I live and what I give my heart to.  As well as how I’d like to live and what I’d like to give my heart to.

            It was an 8 day conference and it was incredibly full with plenary sessions on each of the subject matters, interactive workshops, small group sessions, worship, spiritual direction, meals, plus getting to know the other people in the group.  On the fourth day, we reached the segment about vocation.  Since we’re learning Latin this morning, “vocation” comes from the Latin word for “call” or “summons.”  And while I know in my head that “vocation” is a broad and multi-faceted category, somehow I’d still expected this segment about vocation at my conference to be limited to our day-time paid jobs - priest in a church or, in some cases, chaplain in a hospital or administrator of a non-profit.  I thought we’d be hearing about ways to determine whether our jobs were indeed our callings – did they both feed us and use our gifts.  And so I was surprised when the speaker, a man named Pat, handed us these forms to fill out that seemed so much broader than that.

            You each received one of these in your bulletin, hopefully along with a pen, and so I ask you to spend the next few minutes filling them out.  I know not every piece of these worksheets will be relevant for everyone, so feel free to just think about the parts that apply to you.

VOCATIONAL PORTFOLIO WORKSHEET - Describe what you do in each category

Your Primary Job/Position

Additional Work

Building & Maintaining Relationships

Service to Others

Study/Development/Learning

Recreation/Leisure/Hobbies

Now think about what on this sheet you are most passionate about.

And think about what you are least excited about.

Is there anything that could be changed or eliminated?

Anything you want to grow or increase?

At my conference, after we’d spent a few minutes talking about what we’d discovered from this process, Pat asked us if there were any categories missing from the worksheet.  I raised my hand and said that I thought it was missing a “spirituality” category.  I hadn’t been sure where that should go – under my job, or under relationships, or under study, or recreation?  Pat looked at me with a bit of a smile and said, “Hmm… where should it go?  …  I guess we all have to work that out for ourselves.”  I sat there waiting for a real answer but there wasn’t one coming. 

And that’s when it hit me.  Spirituality – my relationship with God – doesn’t go into a line item like “associate rector at St. Aidan’s” or “learning Spanish” or “giving blood” or even “parenting”.  Spirituality isn’t confined to an hour one Sunday and maybe 20 minutes a day in prayer (if we’re lucky) and grace before meals.  It can go everywhere, infuse everything. 

If we’re lucky our job is a chance to follow our God-given passions, but even if not, it’s a chance to do our best, to work with integrity, to challenge our minds, to bring our best self into our connections with the people we work with.  And if our primary job isn’t one that feeds us, maybe our energies can lead us to some other work or service where we can be God’s hands and feet in the world.  And then our leisure time and our self-development can be ways to discover God anew, to take care of our bodies and feed our souls, and to just rest in God’s creation.  But our relationships with the people that we live with or spend the most time with are probably the best fodder of all for our spirituality, since that tends to be where we need the most grace and forgiveness and patience, and also where we have the most opportunities for love and openness. 

In all of these pieces of our lives we can thank God for the moments of beauty and turn to God in the moments that seem impossible.  Spirituality is everywhere.  Our whole life can reflect our relationship with God. 

            Later that day, Pat told a story that is such a perfect metaphor that I’ve got to share it.  He is a mountain biker – he loves finding blocks of time to head out into the woods and ride his bike until all he is thinking about is the wind going past and the next turn in front of him.  Except there was one problem.  He kept noticing other mountain bikers who were able to ride faster and with more grace, who were able to ride full speed ahead over the bumps and fallen branches and lift their tires into the air without then falling on their faces.  Finally he asked another rider what their secret was, and they told him that they wore the special shoes that clip into special pedals so that when they land, their shoes stay on the pedals and they can control their bike better.  But Pat was afraid of those clips.  He wasn’t comfortable with not being able to easily put his foot down to prevent a fall.  He didn’t like the idea of being so attached to his bike, to being so vulnerable.  And so for years, he kept riding as he was.  Enjoying it, but always wishing he was able to ride faster, to fly in the air on his bike without tumbling head over heels.  And then one day he finally broke down and got the new pedals and the new shoes.  He was terrified on his first ride, waiting for that moment when he felt stuck and got hurt.  But that wasn’t what happened at all.  Instead, he was finally one of those bikers he’d been watching with longing all those years.  He could go on trails he’d always been afraid of, go straight over those bumps and branches and soar through the air and land safely.  Now that doesn’t mean he never has a bad ride or a scary fall.  But the overall experience of his biking is so rich that it sounds like a form of contemplative prayer.  It just took clipping in.
            And so I appreciated the chance to think about where I’m spending my time and whether it reflects my passion and energy.  I appreciated the opportunity to think about what I might be able to add or subtract to live life more completely.  But for me, the greatest insight was realizing that all of what we do can be in the context of our relationship with God if we just clip in.
            So think about your life and what else it might be.  Think about whether you are on the path God is calling you to.  And then clip in and give your heart!  Amen.