What happens if you reject God's call?

[Bob_Crowley]

I feel I have a call to be a theologian. Theology to me comes natural and easy and sometimes i can find myself debating or reading theological stuff for hours. For I do not know what reason I like. I used to think I was called for priesthood or monasticism when I was younger(in the EOC the priest needs to be married and can marry), I still find this call, as a religious call but I cannot precisely decipher it of what sort it is. I would not like to become a monastic… Nor a priest, cause I also think it is a great burden and responsibility (the souls of all people) and I am yet to be convinced of any theology as the Ultimate Real Truth. In the past few years I tried to run away from it as much as possible and live a secular, materialist life as much as possible. I also realised it is too much time-consuming and energy consuming sometimes in pointless and harming ways. Pondering on religion and religious morality, and the morality of God always somehow make me harm, as respectively at different points i see at least one of those as immoral and senseless. Lately I had some trouble believing God is fair, and had a lot of moments when I thought/think that God is (also) pure evil. Or that he cannot exist. I am mostly like this with ups and downs, back and forward. Pursuing an ultimate fairness and morality deep down. What would your advices be?

I’ve started wading through Alister McGrath’s “Christian Theology - An Introduction”. I notice that you are Orthodox, so I’m wondering which theology you’re reading.

McGrath had a paragraph about Orthodox (Byzantine) theology such that

Byzantine theology can be regarded as remaining faithful to a principle originally set out by Athanasius in his writing “On the Incarnation” which affirmed that theology was the expression of the mind of the saints. Byzantine theology (including its modern descendants in both Greek and Russian Orthodoxy) is thus strongly orientated toward the idea of paradosis (“tradition”), particularly the writings of the Greek fathers…

I’m just wondering if you’re sticking only to Orthodox theology or broadening your scope a bit. I’ve only ever been to one Greek Orthodox service, when a workmate who married a Greek chap had their first child baptised. I think it could have been called “Traditional” with a capital T. And apart form that it was all Greek to me.

Just a thought. Because if you broaden your scope to include Catholic and Protestant theology, and find theology still comes easily to you, then I think you should at least try to get some qualifications in theology, even if you’ve got doubts. You can work through your doubts as you go.

 

[Cybophonia]

I’ve started wading through Alister McGrath’s “Christian Theology - An Introduction”. I notice that you are Orthodox, so I’m wondering which theology you’re reading.

McGrath had a paragraph about Orthodox (Byzantine) theology such that

I’m just wondering if you’re sticking only to Orthodox theology or broadening your scope a bit. I’ve only ever been to one Greek Orthodox service, when a workmate who married a Greek chap had their first child baptised. I think it could have been called “Traditional” with a capital T. And apart form that it was all Greek to me.

Just a thought. Because if you broaden your scope to include Catholic and Protestant theology, and find theology still comes easily to you, then I think you should at least try to get some qualifications in theology, even if you’ve got doubts. You can work through your doubts as you go.

I’ve been reading all sort of theological and philosophical writings.

 

[AnneElizabeth]

What happens if you feel God has a vocational call for you, but it is not precisely what you want out of life, even if at some point you thought of it?

A person’s vocation is merely that which God has created them to do in this life. I do think you probably meant vocation in the sense of it being a call to religious life, but its important to remember that the first statement is the true meaning of the word. We are all called but to serve in different ways.

I’d say it depends on the circumstances of the call to religious life… If one knows they got it and they totally ignored it, didn’t do anything about it but procrastinate and try and forget about it and put it out of their mind, then I’d have to say that it probably would be something one was confronted with at judgement as to why they were ignoring the Lord… Someone brought up Jonah, and this was precisely what he was doing… he didn’t like what the Lord was asking him to do. He was running away and also not trusting in the Lord.

However, if one did look into it and religious life did not sit at ease within their heart, then I would say that person should not worry about it anymore… even if they *could *see themselves doing it even though it didn’t feel right within their heart. I believe God wants the best fit for a vocation for us… after all He created us to be the way we are. He would not create us to be one thing then expect us to mold into something totally different that was not a good fit. …

 It would be the same as someone dating a person and being not sure if they should break up with them or not...  if you did decide to break up, you can say you did give it a try.  The break up happened, you moved on, and that is that and God is in control of everything.   If one is actively seeking the Lord, then there should be no worries in the matter.

Again, vocation is about how you are going to live your life for God. Whether single, married or religious… all are important and good. The main point of it all being living for Christ.