No Arguing with Jesus

Things would be a whole lot easier if Jesus would just say what He wants, instead of making me guess.

It’s probably because I’m so lukewarm. And it’s easy to forget that, ensconced as I am in my own rather secular world, until I make the annual hadj to one of the Adventist Meccas (or it is a Medina?), stuck somewhere in the middle of one of the budding new “wine regions” of North America. And now you know: I’m writing from either PUC, Walla-Walla, or Andrews U. Here, thrust reluctantly back into an undiluted Adventist community, I’m having to readjust to the culture that I’ve been away from for what feels now like a very long time. It’s both reassuring and also somehow troubling to see that things have basically not changed.

I’m reminded of several of my Adventist-logic pet peeves of years past. One is the tendency to articulate everything (everything) in Jesus/Satan terms, and the logical rollercoaster that this can take someone on. For example: “I was on the way to prayer meeting” (Jesus). “But I got a flat tire on the way there” (Satan didn’t want me to make it). “Then a nice trucker stopped to help me change the tire” (Jesus looking out for me). “He had a lot of tattoos and those naked-lady mudflaps” (Satan). “I told him that I was on the way to prayer meeting” (Jesus gave me an opportunity to witness). “He said he hadn’t been to church in a long time” (Satan). “I gave him a pamphlet and invited him to come anytime” (Jesus). “He said ‘thank you’ and that he’d think about it” (Jesus and Satan duking it out for his soul). The possibility that flat tires sometimes just happen and truckers, despite occasional extern appearances, are often just nice people is never seriously considered.

The one that really gets me, though, is the “I just feel ‘called’…” routine. This on typically comes with a great deal more emotional packaging, but at it’s core is actually a bit more linear. Basically, the person doesn’t like something about his or her life; the easiest and/or most direct path to changing that thing will inconvenience others in some way (often financially), and therefore gaining the necessary support for the most direct path will be a challenge; articulate the need, not just for change, but for change in that inconvenient-to-others manner as something that he or she has “been called” to do. And once you’ve “been called”, just like Jonah or Baalam of old, as we all know, resistance is futile. He might be calling softly and tenderly, but there’s still no point in arguing with Jesus.

A few examples of “I just feel ‘called’” from my own, direct personal experience and/or observation.

An American missionary family in Japan in the early 1990’s had had it up to here with the rising costs and the ebbing respect for foreigners in that country. They looked at the map and decided that they had “been called”, of all places, to Laos. In those days Laos was an exceptionally difficult and expensive place to get work visas for foreigners to, and the local SDA structure went to very considerable trouble and expense to accommodate this family’s desire to answer the “call” in Laos. After only a few short months there, things weren’t working out so well. The weather was hot and humid, the food too spicy, the government too difficult. They looked at the map again and “felt called” to leave Laos. More expense and inconvenience for a lot of people whose job it was to accommodate that family’s “call.” And then, after a few years of recuperating in North America, once the rosy glow of touring churches as returned, committed missionaries, they “felt called” back to Laos… I lost track of them after that point...

A pastor at a large, very well-known church smack in the middle of North American wine country felt that this congregation was become too “apostate” (apostate = liberal = Satan), and so was “called” to move to more conservative congregation in a more conservative state. After months of drama and farewell potlucks and considerable expense and effort by everyone, this person + family made the move. Only to discover that the new congregation was possibly even more apostate than the original one. And so, a few months later, it came as no real surprise when this person again “felt called” to return to the original post.

Several years ago I found myself in a two-car caravan of Adventists traveling across state lines on a Friday night. As a result of some poor planning, combined with bad weather, we started the drive home late Friday evening. We pulled into a gas station to fill up, but as I was pumping gas into my car, the driver of the other rolled down her window to let me know that she “felt called” to not fill up! There was a non-Seventh-day Adventist in the car and so the driver (and the others) agreed that they were “called” to witness to this person by not buying and selling on Sabbath. Rather than pumping gas, they bowed their heads and prayed for a miracle. I was still at the pump when she set out for the six-hour drive home with less than half a tank. At around 2:00 AM, the guy riding shotgun with me spotted the other car, dark, under an overpass. We stopped and checked. They’d run out of gas an hour and a half prior, and since then had been huddling in the cold. By the time we drove to the nearest gas station, bought a gallon of gas in a borrowed can, drove back, looped around back to where her car sat, we’d added sixty miles and nearly two more hours to the trip. And in the end she still had to buy gas on Sabbath. The sky was turning grey with first light as I rolled into my driveway. And as far as I know, the non-Seventh-day Adventist the other driver “felt called” to witness to never returned to come over to Adventism. No surprises there.

And I could go on. Everyone feels as if they are uniquely “called” to be a Noah (build a big boat) or Hosea (marry a prostitute) or whatever. “I feel called” or one of a zillion equivalents in Adventist culture seems to have become code for, “I have a totally hair-brained idea that no thinking person would get behind unless somehow convinced that Jesus has ordained it.” And of course we can’t argue with Jesus.

* * *

I feel called to use my brain.

God gave it to me, and expects me to use it. This is not to say that there is no room for faith or providence or movement in “mysterious ways.” But the reality in year 2000-something is far more mundane than visions or revelations or dry fleeces. God built us with the capacity for logic and reason, and to not use those capacities amounts to at least poor stewardship.

But it goes deeper, darker as well. Perhaps there are still genuine, impossible-to-articulate and from-God “callings.” But most of the time, it seems to me that “I feel called” is at best laziness. It’s an excuse to not have to think about things, to consider real-world strategies and alternatives. “I feel called” can be simply a throwing up of one’s hands at the complexity and difficulty of the modern world.

At it’s worst, “I feel called” is manipulation: a last-ditch attempt by people who feel otherwise powerless to assert their relevance and get their own way without having to do any real work. "I feel called" is just a little too convenient; a trump card too easily played. “I feel called” is a way to take advantage of those who are either not able or choose to not think their way out of the emotional and spiritual thicket that is life in a time when traditional absolutes feel increasingly under attack. After all, you can’t argue with Jesus.

But I refuse to be manipulated. Feel “called” if you want to. But if your calling amounts to my inconvenience, you’d better have Jesus come talk to me directly.