"For those who live life as a journey and see faith as a journey, calling has an obvious implication. It reminds us that we are all at different stages on the way and none of us alive has yet arrived. Trouble comes when we forget this fact and pretend that life is static and settled, as if everything were a matter of sharp lines, clear boundaries, precise labels, and final assessments. So that some are in, some out; some have arrived, others not.
When mighty Rome was sacked in A.D. 410 by Alaric's barbarians, Augustine jotted down the observation that the seeming permanence of a city was sought by unfaithful Cain, not faithful Abel. "The true city of the saints is in heaven," he wrote in The City of God. Here on earth Christians travel "as on a pilgrimage through time looking for the Kingdom of Eternity."
"Certainly we who follow Christ know why we have lost our original home. We know the home to which we are going. And we know not only the One who awaits us there, who makes it home, but also the One who goes with us on our journey. But we are still on a journey, and we are truly travelers. We are not wanderers, but we are wayfarers. We have discovered that He is the way, but we are still on the road. Our faith is a pilgrim faith essentially at odds with place and settlement....
Calling reminds us that, recognizing all the different stages people are at, there are many more who are followers of Jesus and on the Way than we realize. To forget this and insist that everyone be as we, at the same stage and with the same stories as ours, is to be a Christian Pharisee...."
Taken from the book, The Call, by Os Guinness, pages 112, 113
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