“To know what we are here to do, and why, is not an abstract, philisophical question.  There is no question more personal and more passionate, no question that is closer to our hearts.”  -Os Guiness

“Vocation does not come from willfulness.  It comes from listening.  I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about - quite apart from what I would like it to be about - or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my intentions.”  -Parker Palmer

“Calling is where your deep hunger meets the world’s deep needs.”  -F. Buechner

“Calling is not primarily about increasing your earning potential or status, but it refers to the fact that God made you with certain capacities, and this world needs you to fulfill those.”  -JR Woodward

“That “ultimate why” for living, the highest source of purpose in human existence is to be found in answering the call of our Creator.  Calling is the truth that God has created us for Himself.”  -Os Guiness

“Instead of, ‘You are what you do,’ calling says, ’Do what you are.’”  -Os Guiness 

My friend Stefan in Slovenia has recently started doing this:

picture from http://flickr.com/photos/fongetz/

A friend shared a thought with me today, during our regular Monday night meeting, from a Spanish Philosopher by the first name of Jorge.  It sparked some great discussion.  Here it is (well, actually this has been translated from Spanish into Hungarian, and now VERY losely into English).  “BROTHERHOOD: Live together in an honest and credible way without hurting each other, especially among those who regularly bear your childish outbursts of anger, despair, and disappointment (ie. those who are closest to you).  This childishness pollutes the air.  We shouldn’t just avoid physical dirt, but also the moral, spiritual, and emotional dirt.  Even if we are able to move beyond our childish behavior, which is always selfish, those deeds have been done and those words have been said (and there is need for forgiveness).  They can continue to pollute the air.  This childish selfishness and anger is like larva in the soul (eww, yuck).  It is a fire that becomes hotter than any argument and seeks to maintain further arguments while our maturity decreases (the cycle of “ungrace” as Yancey calls it).  In the visible world, we have different genders, cultures, and ages.  But we have God, we have faith, we have many everyday happenings that connect us.  In brotherhood, we take advantage of everything which unites us, and not those things which divide us.”  -spanish philosopher Jorge.

Pascal once said, “The biggest issue in our day is that a person can’t sit quietly in his own room.”  And that was said in the 17th century.

Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-Control

We’ve just finished five amazing days.  Five friends from North Carolina came to help us with an English Camp.  A couple hours after landing in Budapest, this jet-lagged team was hanging out with university students at English Club.  Over the course of the weekend, Donnie shared 10 thoughts on how to live a better life.  Five of them are:

• Be intentional with your thoughts
• Be thankful
• Be accountable to someone
• Tell those you love that you love them
• Be Quiet

We spent Saturday morning at an orphanage in Debrecen, and we almost had too much fun.  I’d say that was a pretty significant time for all of us.  A highlight for me was when one of the young girls found the courage to sing a song for all of us.  Wow. 

After Valéria’s awesome scavenger hunt in the city center, had a Hungarian lunch, some English small groups, life-story sharing, and lots of games.  I won’t mention what time people went to bed.  :)  This was an outstanding group of Americans who came to visit.  They brought so much fun, they shared their hearts, and they were real with us.  (Thanks Adam, Jill, Amanda, Adrien, and Donnie!!!!).  Personally, I feel refreshed and excited about life.  Here’s some pictures:

Os Guiness has reminded me recently that, as seekers and sojourners, we often start out searching, but we end up being discovered.  We think we are looking for something; we realize we are found by Someone.  I wonder if we sometimes can become overly occupied with the activity of knowing at the expense of being known.  It is a powerful thing to be known by Someone.

So it has been really really hot here.  The city has been passing out water (with gas) on the streets.  People are searching for shade wherever they can find it.  I think yesterday was a record breaker.  Yesterday I noticed three different plants in our yard.  There is this plant near the back of our house…I’m not exactly sure what kind of plant it is because it is completely dead, dried up and withered in the baking sun.  There is also a fern which is still alive, but the tips are completely brown, scorched by the high heat.  There is also some sort of vine that grows on our fence.  Though the heat has been incredible, this vine is thriving, growing, spreading, bearing fruit. 

Which kind of person am I?  Am I dying, surviving, or thriving?  What is it that causes me to really live?

Recently a few of us had a nice conversation based on a chapter from Tuesdays with Morrie.  The chapter we read and discussed centered on the role, power and enticement of money in our present day cultures.  As we wandered through the ideas of this chapter, a central question emerged: how do we live in such a way that we are not consumed  by our wants and desires? I was inspired by the thoughts that arose.

The simple effort to distinguish between wants and needs is a life revolutionizing activity.  There are bigger things to live for than my own wants and my own desires.  (Don’t get me wrong, I’m not necessarily advocating a monastic lifestyle.)  Training my soul to perceive the needs, value and interests of others can help break the hold my own wants have on me.  The clearer I see others and the world, the smaller my problems become.  We must train our souls to attend to others. 

One of these unviersity students communicated a sense of frustration, “we work so hard just to ready ourselves to participate in this consuming society….to be consumers.”  Is this what it is all about?  Are we simple consuming creatures?  Or are we designed for more? 

But what we are looking for is a deep fundamental shift in our being, an essential change in our orientation from self to others.  We are talking about breaking out of the “self” prison.  Can this redirection of the heart be developed through discipline?  Perhaps to an extent.  Paraphrasing what another friend said, “we can’t make these kinds of profound changes without some kind of an awakening of the heart, mind and soul.”

From August to November of 1991 the 87 day siege of Vukovar took place leaving nothing but ruins, hardly any building fully intact, and 100% of the inhabitants scarred by the atrocities of this war.  There is still a heaviness being carried by Vukovarians.

But there is also life, a continued story.  One thing I clearly recognized while in Vukovar this time is the impossibility of outsiders to come and feel, empathize, and make any sort of real impact.  I see our friends Laci and Keri who moved to Vukovar almost three years ago, or our new friend Charles who moved there in 1995.  By doing so they entered the story.  By entering the story they have become fellow journeyers, able and willing to share burdens, meaning, and hope. 

I love this picture of the flowers growing out of a partly destroyed building.  Maybe it is an appropriate metaphor for many us as people, especially our friends in Vukovar.  Impact, meaning, and hope are the fruits of a shared story. 

Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have. -Rene Descartes

In Hungarian (and also Croatian from what I hear), the word for “Enjoy” literally means, “to be in life.”

Recently Laura and I have been talking with a couple friends about “Being Present.”  Here are few summary questions: (Thanks P & K!)

• Do I have mindfulness + willfulness?  Or do my actions reveal a lack conscious submission to what is important? 
• Am I aware that I can influence the outcome of this situation I am in?  Or am I just a product of my circumstances?
• Do I have that “Burning Yes” in my spirit, a deep sense of commitment and purpose?  Or am I just busy staying busy?
• Am I giving attention and thoughtfulness to the present details of life?  Or am I too focused on the future or the next big thing?
• Am I careful about that which enters my mind?  Or do my present words and actions reveal an careless and unfiltered life?