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God's Story and My Story:
A two-part Bible study on call
and vocation.
Purpose: To look at issues of call, vocation, and discernment and reflect on
one’s own story through examining biblical call stories.
Length: 1 hour for each session
Age: High school and young adults
SESSION ONE
“Vocation does not mean a goal
that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear. Before I can tell my life what I
want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. I must listen
for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity; not the standards by
which I must live—but the standards by which I cannot help but live if I am
living my own life.” –p. 4-5, Let Your Life Speak, by Parker Palmer
Open in Prayer
Check-in with participants:
Ask the
question, “Where have you noticed God’s presence in your life over the last
week?”
Old Testament Scripture
Reading:
Read Psalm 139: 1-12 aloud.
Read slowly and invite participants to “soak” in God’s word as it is read.
Notice the intimacy with God in this Psalm and the intimacy of how God is
involved in our lives. We cannot escape God, God searches for us as our Creator.
Questions for reflection:
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When you heard the reading,
how did it make you feel?
-
How close is God to you?
-
How do you respond to God’s
closeness to you?
Old Testament Scripture
Reading:
Read 1 Samuel 3:1-10.
A bit of background on this text. The book of Samuel shares with us the story of
Samuel, the prophet. Our reading today describes God’s call to Samuel, when he
was just a young boy.
Biblical Questions for
reflection:
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How many times did the Lord
call to Samuel?
Three. Four, if you count the last time, when Samuel responded!
-
Who did God use to help Samuel
realize he was being called?
Eli
-
What did Eli realize the last
time Samuel came to him?
He perceived that the Lord was
calling him.
-
What does Eli tell Samuel to
do? He tells him to respond to God’s call by saying, “Speak Lord, for your servant
is listening.”
-
What does Samuel do when the
Lord calls upon him?
He listens and responds wtih,
“Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
-
How might have Samuel felt
when he realized the seriousness of his call, especially as a young boy? Individual answers. (Scared,
puzzled, wondering where all of this would lead, excited)
Personal Questions for
reflection:
- Does God call people of all
ages? Why?
Yes, because God calls different people to different actions at
different points and times in their lives. We are all called, but it requires us
to listen to where God is leading us at various points!
- How has God used other people
to help you listen to what God was saying? Does it help? Do you listen?
(Individual
answers.)
- How has God called you to
serve? What are your hesitations?
(Individual answers.)
- How do you listen to God’s
leading each and everyday?
(Individual answers.)
- Do you think God has created
you for a specific purpose, like Samuel? If yes, what might some of those things
be? If no, why not?
(Individual answers.)
A short personal call
story….
Around the
age of 14, Anna felt a pull to serve in some kind of public, church ministry.
She thought maybe someday, she’d like to be a pastor. Others identified her
gifts and would share with her how they saw her leadership in the church.
Throughout high school and college, Anna was very involved in her congregation,
loved to learn about scripture and her connectedness to God, attended church
camps, and went on mission trips. She felt comfortable sharing her faith and
continually felt a tugging and a joy in her heart as she thought about being a
leader in the church.
Even though
she felt strongly about her call, even at such a young age, she was afraid and
thought you had to be perfect or had to fit a certain mold in order to be a
pastor. She spent years wrestling with and trying to avoid her call to serve as
a pastor. Finally she realized her senior year in college that she really wanted
to go to seminary and when she finally listened to her heart and made the
decision to go, she felt incredibly relieved and happy. She found that God
molded and shaped her throughout her time at seminary. Anna graduated four years
later and is currently serving a church in Colorado.
Reflection Questions:
- How does Samuel’s call story
and Anna’s call story differ? How are they the same?
- How is God calling you to
serve and live out your gifts in and beyond the church right now?
- Have you ever thought about
serving in a ministry of the church?
End your session with a
closing prayer. Ask if anyone has any closing thoughts or ideas about what they
heard during this time.
SESSION TWO
“At a fairly young age—by
fifth or sixth grade, certainly—most of us have a pretty good sense of what we
love to do—and what we don’t. The roots of our calling in our lives go back very
deeply—to before we were born. Calling is an expression of our essence. The seed
lies within us; one way or another it seeks to fulfill itself in the world. So
the question we need to ask ourselves is whether we’re doing all we can to bring
the fruits of our calling to bear.”
— p. 16-17, Whistle While You
Work, Dick Leider and David Shapiro
Open in Prayer
Check-in with participants:
Ask the question, “Where have
you noticed God’s presence in your life over the last week?”
Old Testament Scripture
Reading:
Psalm 139: 13-18. Read slowly, so that participants can listen to God’s word for
them. Again, be reminded of the intimacy and the love that God has and wants for
us. We are important and created with gifts and passions! We are created to live
them out and God created us to be in relationship with God and each other as we
discover the gifts and passions within us!
Reflection Questions:
- What is your response to this
reading?
- As you are wonderfully made,
share one wonderful gift that God has created in you!
- What is one way God might be
leading you to live out who God has created you to be?
New Testament Reading: Luke 1:26-38
Remember, Mary was just a
young girl, probably around the age of 12 or 13 when the angel appeared to her
and told her about her “call.”
Biblical Reflection Questions:
- Who shares the announcement of
what was to happen with Mary?
The
angel Gabriel.
- Why would Mary be “much
perplexed” by this greeting?
She was afraid!
Wouldn’t you be?!
- What is Mary’s response in
verse 34? How can this be, since I am a virgin?
- After the angel told her what
would happen and about her relative Elizabeth, what did Mary say? “Here am I, the servant of the Lord;
let it be with me according to your word.”
- What would assure Mary that
this miraculous “thing” could happen to her?
When the angel said, “For
nothing is impossible with God.”
Personal Reflection Questions:
- How might you feel if you were
Mary? What would your response be?
- As a young person, how does
God call you to share Christ with the world in the here and now?
Another short call story….
Scott loved
helping people, even when he was a little boy. He often role played being a
doctor and would tend to the “pretend” sick and those who were hurting. He
strongly felt that God gave him the gifts to someday be a doctor. This is where
he felt called and where his heart felt most comfortable. Throughout his growing
up, he found himself loving math and science and took as many classes as he
could to prepare him for his future as a doctor. He excelled in school, and did
several internships at hospitals throughout the country and found himself at
medical school at the University of Minnesota Medical School after graduating
from college. He applied to do his residency at Washington University in St.
Louis, Missouri and after graduating was hired as a doctor.
His area of specialty was
pediatric orthopedic surgery and he has continued focusing on this area of
ministry ever since. Scott currently teaches the new residents and feels
strongly that he is living out his gifts and call in the hospital. God has given
him these gifts and he has known this from the time he was little. God shaped
and molded him along the way and shares his faith in his daily life by being the
person God created him to be! His Christian vocation is lived out through his
occupation as a doctor.
Reflection Questions:
End in prayer. Have a time of
reflection on what they have learned and thought about during these two bible
studies.
How has God’s story impacted
how they see their own?
About the author:
Emily Rova-Hegener is a 1999
graduate of Luther Seminary. She serves as pastor at Silverdale Lutheran Church
in Silverdale, Wash. She and her husband, Joel, share this call together. They
have one son, Nestor Nils. Emily is also a spiritual director and is passionate
about helping people discern their call and discover where God is leading them
in daily life. She finds that she has many calls: wife, mother, daughter,
pastor, friend, spiritual director, and writer!
“The storytellers tell the
story of who we are and where we come from. The storyteller continues the story
and gives hope in the future.”—Dakota Indian
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