outWORD by Matte Downey

This is part two of a series talking about Jesus's calls to come and to go and the relationship between them. You can read the first part, "Come and See,"  here. Image from healthland.time.com We learn things by being around other people, and they learn things by hanging out with us. That's the way it works. The first people we learned things from were members of our family. Children are natural imitators and they mimic the behaviour and attitudes they see in their parents and other influencers present in their lives (for better or for worse). Growing up on a farm, I learned how to care for animals, how to plant and harvest, how to embrace the seasonal nature of life, and how to shovel manure. Like I said, for better or worse. Not all of the ideas we assimilate are helpful, and as responsible adults, we need to honestly evaluate learned behaviour to see if it contributes to a flourishing life, a good life, a life consistent with the life, death, and resurrectio...

Image from secondlook2nd.blogspot.com It has been great to be back in the classroom this fall after months of sitting alone at my desk and writing, drinking vast amounts of tea, and trying not to pull my hair out. This term I get to serve as a Teaching Assistant for Introduction to Theology. I love being in a supportive role for both students and the professor, but it was a bit of a rough start. I remember coming to the first class in early September and for the first time in my life (as long as I can remember), not being super excited about the beginning of the school year. I didn't even take the traditional first day of school photo. I was just tired, fatigued by the ongoing demand for high level, innovative, scholarly output and the exceptional dedication required by the multitude of tasks on my schedule. I was depleted by a summer spent wringing words onto the page day after day without any real break. I felt the constant, weighty pressure of finishing my doctoral dissert...

For one of my courses this semester, I have been reading a lot of Paul Ricoeur, a French philosopher.  I am the first to admit that reading Ricoeur is not for the faint of heart.  Fortunately, the long, arduous road through his philosophical meanderings proved to be totally worth it when I got to the last two articles.  One of them was called, "The Summoned Subject in the School of the Narratives of the Prophetic Vocation."  One of the sections in this article explores the topic of vocation.  I pulled out some of his points and fleshed out the ideas for a short talk last Sunday.  Though Ricoeur is using Old Testament prophets as an example, I believe these principles apply to us all. Before I get into Ricoeur's points, let me offer a brief explanation of the term, "vocation."  This word carries a sense of "spiritual calling," and has its root in the same word as "v...