The Other Brother

 AMDG I, a follower of Christ Jesus, to you, fellow followers in all diversity of circumstances. The peace of Our Lord be with you. At a conference last year, I stopped at a booth for a religious community I had never heard of. I chatted briefly with the two representatives. I liked what I learned, and they were attentive and engaged. One of them was a vocations director, and he asked me if I had considered religious life. Yes, I would love to join religious life. However, I am transgender. Ah. Now he assured me that God is calling me to something. But not to life with his order. I would have to figure it out. The smile was still amiable, but the interest was gone. Here’s a pamphlet about their work in Chicago. Bye. Vocation comes up a lot in conversation. It’s my anchor into LGBTQ issues. It’s a perpetual topic of advertisement in the church. And it’s something I’m still actively figuring out – and maybe will be for the rest of my time on Earth. But a few things about these ...

AMDG  I, a slave of Christ, small by all measures and yet chosen by him for some mysterious end, to you, my sister or brother, who are chosen also for the glory of God. Grace and peace. We know that it is good to be open to the Spirit. Scripture is rife with examples of people who literally drop what they are doing to obey the prompting of the Spirit: Philip with the Ethiopian Eunuch comes to mind, as well as the calling of James and John. Many of the prophets, too. These exemplars point to a life lived moment to moment, not planning too much for the future because we wait expectantly on God, confident in his designs. Yet this is, for most of us, an extreme. Surely a lot of scheming went into the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the return of the Babylonian exiles; Paul must have employed his own mind in much of his mission work; etc. We make plans big and small without infringing upon the sovereignty of God. Ideally, our process includes prayer and our plans are open to the interve...