Have you ever had a calling from God?

[stanzaorganza]

My neighbour is an accountant. He is 33, married to a lovely woman and has no children. They are both very Christian and regularly talk about God in everyday conversation ie. when they got married they could feel God’s presence etc.

He has recently had a calling from God to try a long held dream to become a singer. He says he has felt God leading him down this path and can no longer refuse him.

This is all great but what does a calling from God actually involve? What’s the difference between that and just deciding you fancy a career change? As a non Christian this is not something I have ever experienced but interested to find out.

Of course many psychotic patients have religious delusions. Just as many experience a TV or phone or electric sockets sending them messages. The issue isn't with God , the TV, the phone or sockets it's with the mental illness.

I would agree that it's a matter of interpretation. I often have gut feelings, instincts, intuition. If I was a believer, I could quite easily attribute those things to the guiding hand of a higher power. Since I'm not, I attribute them to biology/psychology.

I wish I could have a calling that didn't involve even more shit in my life.

Those of you saying that people are just using God as an excuse and they should own their own decisions......... I know of several people that were called by God to do things they had absolutely no desire or wish to do. They found themselves taking new directions in life, not because they had chosen this for themselves, but because God had asked it of them.

I think that religious elders of the past knew a thing or two about the human psyche and what it needed to calm it, soothe it, inspire it, challenge it and all the other things we need to do to get through life.

I think about all the modern therapies and how they parallel with traditional faith - like prayer/mindfullness/gratitude stuff

There is at times a need to believe in something more powerful than us and a purpose, particularly if something awful has gone wrong. i think religions strength comes from thre fact that it can allow you to bend reality sufficicientky out of shape so it makes sense (resurrection, etc) and yet offer guidance on how to function in a mad, surreal world. Some how it works and satisfies the complexity of the human heart/mind. It can't be understood by theory or critical engagement - it hs to be understood by practice, though.

Different words for the same thing for sure but the supernatural element of faith provides the scope for taking you out of the real world (reality) when you need it (deep loss or grief) so that you can let go of your emotions and yet bringing you back in so that you can mov on.

In many ways, our social acknowledgement of human fraility and flaws is the greatest, most humane thing we have. We are allowed to be flawed and not perfect - a work in progress. Its very liberating.

@kingofkings

Why is it always electrical things though? whats the association ? electrical currents = stress?

@peppermintcapsules

I think it works more along the lines of

you have difficulties in life (eg, money worries)
The difficulties weigh on you, stopping you from seeing options, clouding your judgement
You are plagued by doubt, worry, stress and caught in a cycle
Turning to God or a belief in God allows you to say - its in his hands, there's nothing worrying can do about it
You give up fighting your situation and accept it
You start to see solutions because you are no longer 'fighting' it.

Religion allows you to transfer the weight of your problems to someone who is more capable than you - in an abstract, metaphorical way.

Funny thing is that it works It gives the mind a valve to open up and like nature and its vacuum, if there is nothing there, fear creeps in. Filling that space instead with love and hope frees you up to ironically, focus on the here and now with confidence and clarity.

Which is exactly what business management courses, the secret, self help books, every new age trip, drugs , and mantras do. But with God, its for free.

Philippians 2:3-4 (3) Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, (4) not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others

Blimey, only page 2 and already it's gone all Dot Cotton.

Personally, I think it's a way of avoiding responsibility for your own choices if things go tits up. In many ways, I wish I had a God to blame instead of myself for the many mistakes I've made. And a belief I will see my loved ones again one day. I was brought up as Catholic and taken to Mass every Sunday, but remember thinking ''this is bollocks'' from a very young age. The belief in a God made no sense to me then, and still doesn't.

That said, I do respect others belief's, I just don't understand them. Never will.

@starlight

Don't you think some of the practices are helpful though? I'm thinking of Lent and how good it is to have a reminder of self discipline. Or the effect of prayer (time out) on the mind.

We can do these things out of the religious context for sure and they still work.

I think about all the modern therapies and how they parallel with traditional faith - like prayer

I thought it was just the religious who prayed?

If that isn't the case, I might try it - nothing to lose

On a serious note though - it's an interesting topic. I suppose in many ways prayer is just another form of hope?

I recently had someone who din,t really now me pray for me. What she said was so relevant and true to me and my circumstance. perhaps it was just luck, but it meant something to me.

@starlight

I meant people who do mantras, requests to the 'universe', yoga chants, etc.

it is the same thing as repeated prayer like the Rosary - it gets you into a chant like state - a bit like when you are listening to music and totally lost in it as though you are at one with it. It's rhythmic and soothing for the emotions. To me, the old thinkers and philosophers knew that such things soothed the nerves, etc and created a different different state of being (in the way drugs do) and that there is a liberation that comes from being so in control of your emotional state (as opposed to it being in control of you).

Or was I just raised by hippies masquerading as God squad?

@Girlinterruption2020

Interesting how that cross posted with my last post! I've never really thought of it that way, but yes I certainly see your point in how it can benefit many people. I suppose there is a blurry area somewhere between spirituality and religion. Unfortunately to me, the down sides I see in organised religion (general not specific) such as control, avoidance of personal responsibility, etc outweigh any personal gains,

Don't you think some of the practices are helpful though?

I meant people who do mantras, requests to the 'universe', yoga chants, etc

Yes, it's a really interesting point you're making, and I had never thought of it like that before. It's almost (to me) like mindfulness etc culture is a sort of spiritual evolution of traditional religion/ belief.

I think it is as much about the physical effects that kick start emotional effects - so we know that physical exercise can change our mood and that can change our perspective on things (from a negative stance to a postive one). Well, I believe that the rituals and prayers of the old religions did the same for our emotional state - not that they by themselves can alter things but the practice of them can.

For example - going to communion can be a very powerful thing. You are standing up in a room full of people and taking a host that symbolises something you all respect. It is the communal nature of the event that creates the trust and harmony at that moment that allows people to relax and bond. To those who are lonely, isolated or sick that really is a powerful connection that may be enough to keep them going emotionally until they are better. No one needs God when things are going well but I think the fact that are society allows us to acknowledge that we dont always have satisfactory answers, that we can fail and try again, that life is about more than us and is bigger than us - these are actually really liberating. We take it very seriously.

Yes, when the 'institution' of religion gets in the way of the individual and their connection with the world (of nature?) that's the problem. And particularly in catholicism when the institutionalised parts feel like they are being carved into your heart - that's not what it's about for me. I think it is much simpler and innately known. And it is everyones to choose and use for support, comfort, whatever.

I am a bit of a hippy, I think.

I also thought that organised, established religions came about because they people saw what was going on in society and that some people, for what ever reason, were being treated in a less than humane way. Established churches were a clever way of collectively taking all the good stuff and 'celebrating' it whilst phasing out the 'pagan' elements. That is why our churches in the UK, for example, don't seem very strong or necessary - we have secular practices that do the job without 'God' but by having that space filled by a state churcg (CofE) we stop anything wacky filling the space (or anything too old school). W have medicine, healthcare, shelter, transparency in socirtty, welfare - our needs are met but things still happen - death, depression, loss, sickness that make us vulnerable and having a liberal church that works in conjunction with our state ensures that we are not exploited by potions, false cures, expensive holy water, etc.

It is a very real situation too when you look at churches and 'demons', FGM, 'snake oil cures, etc

Sounds like a midlife crisis to me.

As someone raised Christian I always took "a calling" to mean an overwhelm desire to do something, usually in the name of religion - such as take orders. I suppose a good non-religious word for it would be "vocation"

And I hate to be a fun sponge but it's really not on mocking Christianity - you wouldn't mock Judaism or Islam so don't think Christianity is fair game.

We can laugh at the silly neighbour though, who probably sounds like a guniea pig being stepped on when he sings

I think most people have something deep inside themselves that a certain part of themsleves know will fulfill them.

And how they articulate that is down to other factors like religion.

Whenever I have a drink or two I think about how much i want to pack in my job and go and work in a livery stables. I have not ridden for 20 years. But it is telling me that I need to be around horses to feed my soul. But i am not Christian. So I would not see it as a calling. More a hole inside me that has not been filled.

I think the whole notion of being called by God is fair enough as long as that “calling”doesn’t involve the exploitation of others both emotionally and/or financially.

I am not remotely religious but my DP is.However he says he has seen numerous instances of people saying they were being called to do something when it blatantly has been about their own gains.

Two examples for e.g.DP was going somewhere when someone involved with the farce that is Kenneth Copeland approached him (he was doing an appearance there at the time).DP is visually impaired,and this bloke said that it was clear that he had been called to that place today because god wanted him to be prayed for and his sight restored. DP pointed out that he was on his way to a different church event and that God couldn’t have decreed that he should go and be prayed for if he’d called DP to the other event now could he. The man was most put out. Incidentally,Kenneth Copeland is the one who claims he has recently rebuked the Coronavirus and that God has intended for him to still receive his $150m ministry. .

DP also has a former friend who is a missionary.However,he is not paid, he claims that God will provide,when in fact what this means is he expects his friends and family to pay him money in the name of the “good work” he does. Err I think not. In fact DP said this isn’t uncommon in the missionaries .

I have always considered myself agnostic. I'm a big reader so always loved loved reading books about Faith's. I'm 50, my childhood was Irish Catholicism which I loved. Loved the rituals , the language, the smells of mass etc.

About 6 months ago I had a deep and peaceful realisation that God is. That's it, no bug calling, nothing dramatic. Just a security, a realisation that something just is. It's a knowing and I'm happy I felt it.

Shame on people mocking anyone's beliefs.Im no wizard believing fool looking for answers.

One of my favourite books on the subject is Life of the Beloved by Heri J.M.Nouwen, which is sort of a letter from a priest to a secular friend.

Yes, I have. Jesus he knows me, I've been talking to him all my life and he knows I'm right.

No, Morgan Freeman doesn’t have my number.