Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,”Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy” [Jeremiah 1:4-6]. “If you don’t have a call, then you better get one.” This seminary humor circulates endlessly in divinity schools. Its persistence speaks to a universal truth about the nature of calling. The joke’s irony lies in suggesting we can manufacture what only God can initiate. The tension between human agency and divine calling…
"Dispatches to the Front" -- a collection of theological meditations by Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., M.Div.