Hey – relax! It will be alright. There’s a lot of stress out there, you know. But today I want to encourage you to relax. And my theme for today, If you like, is calling. If you hang around church, as I have been known to do, you’ll probably find a lot of people getting fairly stressed about what their calling is. Now, firstly, as a wise man pointed out to me recently, say “calling” to a lot of churchy people and they hear the word “career”. This has certainly been me in the past. But hey – relax. It’s more fun than that.

Sometimes it feels like you’re tightrope-walking in the darkness, with a blindfold on that only lets you see just in front of your feet. What’s more, the rope may snake off in a different direction, and you’d never know. You take a tentative step, desperate to have some sort of certainty about where it is you’re supposed to go. The only clear thing is that if you take the wrong direction, you’ll be in trouble.

But that’s not what the God I know is like. We have been given choice, freedom, and, usually, various likes and dislikes and a keen sense of what we find fun. So it’s more like there’s this huge park; or playground, if you like. Me, I prefer a landscape. Mountains, hills to climb, rivers to swim in, trees to build a den in.

It’s not a narrow path. It’s a world to explore. Your calling is to live; to love; to be yourself. So where do you want to go? Go have fun. Me? I’m off to ride my bike…