The general brilliance of others

Two brilliant blog posts that I've been thinking about on this rainy Monday afternoon here in San Jose:


Calling, vocation, and a Guiness over at TJHoiland.com.  Tim talks through the ideas of "calling" versus "vocation" in the Christian community, and I've often thought about this as well.  My dad gave me this book when I graduated from college, and I read it cover to cover in no time, eager and hungry for Scriptural guidance on what to do with my young life.  Now, as I reflect on the wisdom in this book again, it makes me want to dig it out of our storage unit, blow off the dust, and re-read it.

From the blog:                                                                                                                                       "...My favorite quote about calling is from pastor-novelist Frederick Buechner, who wrote, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” That, in a nutshell, has provided me with a framework over the past few years for thinking and praying and acting my way through the process of discerning my calling(s)..."



And from the book discussed in the blog (Oz Guinesses' "The Calling):                                                                          "...Today we tend to talk of ‘work’ and ‘leisure’ as opposites. Work is serious, leisure is play, it is said. Work is drudgery, leisure is fun. Work is for pay, leisure is free. Work is what we do for someone else, leisure is for ourselves — and so on. But a moment’s thought shows this is not so. Far closer to the mark is the observation that the modern world has scrambled things so badly that today we worship our work, we work at our play, and we play at our worship..."







Would Jesus Walk Away from a Mortgage? at Christianity Today's blog for women, "Hermeneutics."  A timely post for us as we are currently meeting with financial planners, mortgage brokers, and realtors to discuss the wisdom (or lack thereof?) in using our financial resources to try to buy a small place when we move back to the U.S. in the next few months.  Is that the best use of our resources? What if we become, like the author, one of 11 million Americans currently underwater with their mortgages? GULP.  Good food for thought for us...


From the blog: 
"...My husband and I have joked that our 2006 purchase of a townhome in a blue-collar suburb of Chicago must have been the single transaction that popped the housing price bubble in America...We paid $193,000 for our property.  Today, it is worth $101,000 - if we could find a buyer for it...



"...We never had a deep sense of calling to this community. We prayerfully purchased our townhouse using the accepted financial logic of the time: “We’ve relocated, and we need to find a home with enough space to launch our young adult kids. This is what we can afford in this crazy housing market. We’ll stay a few years, then move on.” Reminder to self: Our 
plans are not God’s plans..."

Courtesy: Zillow.com