6 Seasons of CallingExemplo

Called To Make

The first and greatest story of creation is the story of God. Our Father was the first maker. The cosmos itself begins with sound and light. It has always been a wonder to me that secular scientists' best theory for the beginning of the world is called the “big bang,” another way of saying a single photoacoustic event from which the universe expands. And in those first lines of our ancient text, we are told that God said, “Let there be light.” Into the nothing He SPEAKS, and LIGHT explodes the cosmos into existence. Sound and light. Maybe He has never stopped doing that. We have the world because He spoke, and His word illuminates everything else. Each transition is like that for us—a visitation of that ancient memory to hear Him say a word to us, to shine a light on one thing from a chaotic sea of possibilities.

Yet, that was just the beginning of His creative work. The Maker was making a world for us, each layer being laid for the final creation that would most closely resemble Him. He was not just making a world, He was making a family. He makes a world so that a family can emerge and live in it. This has both beautiful and breathtaking implications for us.

Every life is an act of creation. For that reason, every life is a work of art. And this is never more apparent than in Day 4. In this season of life, the primary work is creating. Building on the foundation of Day 3, a person now has enough information about themselves, their skills, motivations, and gifts to be able to ask and answer the deepest questions of calling: What is something that only I am able to create and offer to the world? What unique thing can I do, start, or plant?

If forced to choose between a job that allows you to create something or a job that pays you better, the choice is clear. The pay may give you better things but not better relationships. And as we will all eventually discover (usually at the end of our lives) relationships are the only real wealth we ever acquire. I am not saying that money is unimportant, only that it is a weak substitute for the community that creation can create. The act of starting something, for instance, will also mean a new series of deeply meaningful friendships with people who rally around the thing you are called to create. The call to make something is also an initiation into a community because you are probably not the only person God is calling.

Answering the question about what you will make with your life is an invitation into a family of people who are also called to make the same thing with their lives. And of course, our art is also our mission, so it is also meant to relieve and redeem people in need. The identity of Day 4, then, is one of artist, maker. But, the art we make is not only for us; it is meant to somehow recall the first archetype of creation—to hear the word of God call us into the work of co-creation, to make something that was not there before, and to see a new community form around it.