If you have been a follower of Jesus, hung around a church community and managed to also keep hold of your brain, then you will have noticed that some odd phrases and beliefs creep into “christian life” for some reason.
They don’t make sense, but people say them – even when they require a God who would also have relinquished rational thought.
For some reason, it is quite common to hear someone (while eye-rolling) say something like “I’m not asking God what I should do with my life, it would be just typical of him to make me do something like move to Outer Mongolia and become a nun”.
Because Outer Mongolia is crying out for non-native nuns.
Or maybe you fear God might ask you to help out with a kids group, despite the fact that children scare you. And you scare them?!
For whatever reason, we have allowed assumptions to sneak in the door that God will require us to do things that we don’t enjoy, and are not built for. Again, because of all the middle managers in the world, we secretly suspect that God is the very worst, and loves to promote people to positions of utter incompetence and joylessness.
Here is my point. That way of thinking is, in language which is deeply theological and tricky to wrap your head round… BONKERS.
Why believe in a master creator who designed unique gifting, personality, ambition, character traits, interests and finger prints…only for that same master to squash all those attributes in favour of something we perceive to be holy, no matter how ill fitting?
The arena is you shaped! What the world most needs is you, as a disciple of Jesus to enjoy exercising your gifts and spreading joy in ways which are true and natural to you. Like icing cakes?…figure out a way of doing that to the glory of God. Enjoy coding, or have a natural ability with numbers? Offer it up as Kingdom work. Throw things at the tele when the news is on because the injustice you see hurts too much?…you know what to do.
It can take time to find your arena, but when you do, and you know yourself to be released into it by the God who created you to play in it…well that is when the magic happens.