Nothing But Fancy

I recently heard a pastor teaching on vocation.  He quoted Sam Keen from his book Fire in the Belly.  This is the quote:

In a time when my life had gone off track my friend Howard Thurman said to me, “Sam,” he said, “there are two questions a man must ask himself: The first is ‘Where am I going?’ and the second is ‘Who will go with me?’ If you ever get these questions in the wrong order you are in trouble.’”

I have been thinking a lot about where I’m going.  I have also been thinking a lot about who will go with me.  I don’t think I’ve ever really put the two questions in sequential order… but Thurman’s order makes a lot of sense to me.  I know people who are happily married without a clear idea on where they are headed as well as people who are divorced because they were going different directions.  Sometimes I beg for God to bring me a partner, but I’m still unsure of where I’m going and even more unsure of how I’ll get there.

I do not think that I will ever know exactly where I am going.  But this new succession of questions makes me excited that God is clarifying the going question before he sends me a man who is headed in the same direction.

I want to be very clear with both Sam Keen and Howard Thurman when I inform them that these two questions are not just for men.  Women are not tagalongs on the vocational journey of men.  We are partners, working together for our mutual benefit and doing ministry for the benefit of the world.