One of the basic tenets of John Calvin's theology rested on the principle that every person is called by God to do something unique.  The key to understanding this theory rests in the word calling.  God calls and we respond.

     About 500 years later mythologist Joseph Campbell taught that the way to discover the joy of living is to follow our bliss.  Campbell spent most of his adult life teaching at Sarah Lawrence College and whenever he met with incoming freshmen for the first time he would ask them to identify those entities in their lives that brought them joy.  Follow the joy Campbell would tell them, and you just might find your life's true calling.
     To say that God calls us to our true joy means that the Mysterious Regenerative Power of the Universe (one of my favorite nicknames for God) is attempting to communicate with us.  It means that God is available to us through sight, sound, smell, touch and taste.
     When our eyes see a three-year-old girl holding hands with her mother as they walk down the street, God is calling us to remember trust.  When our ears hear the rapture of a Mozart requiem, or John Lennon singing Imagine, or the melodic cascade of a waterfall, God is calling us to inspiration in the everyday.  
     When our nose smells the aroma of baking bread wafting from the oven in the kitchen or the downtown bread factory, God is calling us to remember the Bread of Life is available to us through the miracle of every blessed moment.   When we taste salty popcorn while seated nervously in the darkened cinema on our first date, God is calling us to celebrate the gift of human love.  
     Perhaps most importantly, when our index finger touches the Answer Call button on our ringing cell phone,  God is calling us to remember that God speaks to us most directly through the voices of our friends, family and strangers.  
     I think Calvin and Campbell are right.  Each of us is called in our own way to celebrate God through joyful living.  Some are called to be congressmen and some are called to be clowns (insert political joke here).  Some are called to be preachers and others poets. Some are called to be Congregationalists and others conga drummers.
      Whether we are butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, or astronauts, anthropologists, or actuaries, we're all called to find our way to be the Light of the World.
       What a glorious world this is when we respond to God's daily call to remember that everyone riding our glorious globe is a child of the Mysterious Regenerative Power of the Universe.



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