Christmas Call Cards

If you want to know something about a person’s call, read their Christmas card.

By now you have received many Christmas cards. You have heard how the children are doing, and seen their picture. You have heard about the highlights of the year, including the trip to Europe. You have heard about the move, the wedding, and the health issue.

My uncle and aunt used to send a humorous letter, a satire of the “My kids are all perfect and let me brag about them” kind of card. Their Christmas letter would talk about how their son managed to stay out of jail, or that their daughter got a “C” in math. One year they simply gave the route that their son in law would drive to work.

In many of these cards, I see the hints of people’s call.

Ron Farr defines call this way:
God’s call is not something ‘extra’ that we slip into our already busy schedule. It is not an interruption of what we normally do. It is not even ‘doing one’s part’ or fulfilling one’s obligations at church or any other place. God’s call is the basic organizing principle of our lives. It wells up from our deepest priorities and inspirations, and determines how we manage our time, focus our energies, relate to others, organize our day, and make plans for the future.

~Ron Farr

Defined this way, travel can be a call. Spending energy on a health issue can living your call too. Raising children certainly is. I would even speak of my uncle and aunt’s humorous card as a call—they are called to make others laugh, and they usually do.

My favorite Christmas Call Card so far this season comes from Wini White, a past Lumunos Board member. In her letter she reflects on some reading she has done about getting lost. She writes:

Getting lost can be of ones own volition such as choosing to drive on a different street or changing a job or moving or it can be thrust on one such as by the loss of a job, the death of a spouse, a physical ailment, or an economic downturn. Either way it can be an opportunity for new experiences. For me, the periods of getting lost in my life have led to new adventures, periods of growth, certainly pain and grief. But out of all of them a sense of movement, of maturity, of growth. However, the past few months, in fact most of this year, I have felt a complacency, a comfort but also a feeling of waiting for the next time I would “get lost”. In November I learned about a Celtic Spirituality Pilgrimage scheduled for next May and I got goose bumps. I think this is the nudge from God I have been looking for.

What are you learning about call from your friends’ Christmas cards?