Coming Spring 2007 from Baker Books

“How do you want to spend your life? We all know you can ruin it. But what is more important to recognize is that you can sleep through it.” Dean Brackley

A New Way of Understanding

I’ve noticed an interesting phenomena—a pattern, a theme.

Probably as often as once a week I receive as director of an urban youth ministry, a phone call, a letter, an email or a visit from a hard-working professional from a myriad of occupations—a lawyer, a doctor, a journalist, financial manager, small business owner, university student...a vocational potpourri.

Their theological and political views, as well, are as varied as their identities: Lutherans, Pentecostals, Catholics, Baptists—that sort of thing.

Or try their geography or multi ethnicity: African Americans, Korean-American, Euro-American, Canadians, Scotts, Brits. And socio-economic background doesn’t seem to matter either. But they all have one thing in common: their Christian faith.

So why are these Christians trying to connect with a ministry that tries to help children in what has been deemed America’s most dangerous city? Is it simply their Christian faith that motivates their calls and emails. I don’t think so. If that were the case I would be inundated with calls 24/7.

But it appears there is a deeper reality taking place in the lives of the callers and e-mailers.

Sure, most want to “serve” in some capacity or other—paint a wall, mentor a kid, answer phones, tutor a failing teenager, teach a class, pull weeds, cut grass. But the constant is each wants to engage in an act of service because of something happening in their lives now.

But what is going on their lives now? What motivates their steps toward action while others are untouched? Is it the
connection between the teachings of Jesus and Christian service? Is it some affinity for the Old Testament’s accounts of Micah and Amos’ commitment to justice? An inspiring magazine article or book? A good sermon?

After all the introductions and explanations on the phone, the prospective volunteer might say that they heard someone from our organization speak the previous Sunday. I’ll often ask, “I’m curious. Out of last Sunday’s congregation of at least 800 you are the only one responding, why? Everyone heard the same sermon, sang the same hymns, heard the same cantata and pastoral prayer. How come you decided to call?”

After a little hesitation they might respond, “Well, um, I don’t know quite how to respond to your question. I just felt something…I’m not sure how to put it into words…it was some kind of….a….feeling.”

“You felt something?”

“I know it sounds a little vague and abstract,” they quickly add, ‘but I’m not exactly sure how to put it into words. How about it was just a….hunch…yes…maybe that’s the best way to describe it…I just had a hunch that I should call.”

The response always fascinates me. Out of a truly diverse group of people, an impressive cross-section of people and denominations, the callers use a similar language to describe a particular phenomenon. And they use the word hunch. “I just had a hunch.” Coincidental?

After years of undergraduate and graduate studies in theology, seminary, and a doctoral in ministry, I have to admit that I have never heard the term hunch used in any of my academic settings. Well, sure, I did doze off occasionally in a lecture—Systematic Theology after lunch was tough, Hebrew at 8 am was almost impossible to keep the eyelids open—but I still don’t think this word hunch was ever proposed as something worthy of academic reflection.

Yes, calling was discussed, spiritual gifts, of course—discerning our gifts, “spiritual gifts inventory,” or exercising our gifts and all kinds of tomes on the Holy Spirit and vocation. But hunches? I can just hear the learned professor of hermeneutics, “That’s hardly a word for a seminarian!”

Reflecting on the theme of calling, or vocational choices, spiritual gifts, or the Holy Spirit certainly is critical. But my ministry experience informs me that there might be another language—new words—to help Christians understand the phenomenon that takes place when we are feel compelled to move in a God-inspired direction. Perhaps theologically heavy words like “calling” and “vocation” need to move aside and give room to more earthy words like “hunch” or “nudge”.

Why is it important to look for new words to help understand the Spirit’s work in our lives? Let me first say that a vast number of Christians do not work in jobs where they feel a deep sense of calling. Statistics on job satisfaction suggest that a significant portion of our population feel little connection between their job and a sense of spiritual fulfillment. And, when pushed, most would contend that their jobs do not allow them to really exercise their spiritual gifts at all. Living a called life is a distant reality for most people.

Consequently, we go to church and hear sermons about Abraham’s call, the Apostle Paul’s roadside conversion and his call; the disciple’s leaving their jobs to follow Jesus. We hear dramatic stories about missionaries who follow God’s call to a remote part of the world. We leave the sanctuary inspired. Yes, but we also leave feeling a little disconnected, knowing that we’re never likely to live in a leper colony, smuggle Bibles into a communist country, or head up some medical outpost in Northern India. We’re not that adventuresome. Sure, we may understand the language of a called life, but we may not resonate with the concept because of the realities of our lives—commitments to aging parents, family medical care, monetary need, debt….

So that may be why I keep hearing the word hunch. People are looking for ways to live spiritually spontaneous lives in the midst of jobs and careers in which they might not feel a true sense of calling. And this is exciting, because a vibrant spiritual life should not be reserved only for those who find a deep sense of spiritual fulfillment in their work lives. God-inspired hunches are something that can happen to ordinary people who do ordinary things like raising families and paying mortgages.

Regardless of our place in life, hunches come to those who take the time to open themselves to the Spirit of God. Hunches are what prompt us to put our faith into action: despite the job we hold, the stage of our career, our ethnicity, our age or the demands and realities of our circumstances. Hunches, holy hunches, ultimately nudge us towards expressing God’s heart and intentions in our world at anytime in any place. Hunches don’t necessarily demand a career change, or call us to sell our homes and move to a developing country. Not that a hunch can’t or won’t do that. But hunches, holy hunches, inevitably move us to live more faithfully and authentically in the moment and place in which we find ourselves.

Oh, and by the way, I confess that I approach the issue of a ‘hunch-inspired’ life with some trepidation and hesitation. Because the subjectivity of the hunch word and its experiential implications, the potential for harm and misuse is a strong reality. There are hunches that lead to the expression of God’s witness in the world. But there are hunches that have the potential to produce hurt and destruction.

My hope is that this book will help people make distinctions—the distinction between divine hunches that are holy, wonderful, life-giving and those hunches that lead in an opposite direction.

A saint once said, “I am but a pencil in the hand of God.” As we open ourselves to the prompting, gifted fingers and nudges of God, my prayer is simple: may the multiple, exciting adventure of our individual experiences leave behind a remarkable and beautiful portrait of a life that expressed the exquisite presence of God. If we are faithful to and excited by our hunches, our holy hunches, I believe this will happen.