A writer lay in bed at 5:52 a.m. She knew that her rooster-alarm would crow to tell her to get up and write at 6:00 a.m. She relaxed back on her pillow... eight more minutes...Then she felt an internal tug, a beckoning, a call: “Rise up, we have things to do.” She was startled: “We have things to do?”
Raised in an America individualistic society, she had often thought of “call” as something that she was told to do, something from afar, to which she was simply expected to respond in obedience. That call, that “Rise up, we have things to do,” implied that the divine Coach was team builder and she a beloved member of the team. She got up with renewed energy and began to write…
Notice the team building in today’s call of the apostles. John the Baptist is standing in a group of three. Jesus walks by. Two follow him and they become a group of three. Andrew goes and gets his brother Peter and with Jesus, they become three again. It is a dance of threes, a gentle and quiet camaraderie of coming and going – one points out, two follow; another points out, his brother joins in. It almost feels Trinitarian, like the dance of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, coming and going, gently and forever loving and drawing in.
That tug, that call, is not just for a select few who are called to be apostles or prophets or saints or clergy. That awakening is for each of us as well. We arise to join in the dance of the Trinity, no matter what path we walk along in life. Like young Samuel, we call out in the night, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening!”
Thanks to John R. Barker OFM and Karla J. Bellinger in
“Living the Word”.
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