The week's inauguration of our 44th President, who happens to be our first African-American President, has been dominating my thoughts and feelings. The same may be true for you. Another piece of reality that seems to be present is the immensity of the task before him and all of us. Our new President made this plain in his inaugural address:

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America, they will be met! On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. (Barack Obama, January 20, 2009)

President Obama discerned his direction and discovered his call with a message of hope and unity. He used this message, along with consummate political and interpersonal skills, to become President of the United States. He is now discovering experientially what he has know intellectually for some time now – that living out your calling by doing the work is at least as challenging as discovering that call in the first place. The same is true for all of us whose journeys will not lead us to high political office.

There are two parts to the journey of faith. One is the discernment of our direction, the discovering of our calling. This journey lasts a lifetime. The second part is doing the work -- actually living out the calling once we discover it. The doing takes place at the same time we are continuing the discerning process. Some of us tend to focus on the discernment and spend our lives just figuring out what it is we should be doing. Others of us spend all our energies doing good things, hoping that some sense of spiritual clarity will simply dawn on us.

You've probably heard of the phrase, "journey inward, journey outward." It is the title of a book by Elizabeth O'Connor describing the life journey process of the Church of the Savior in Washington, DC. This community realized that it is vital both to do work you feel called to do while at the same time, to continue a spiritual process of discernment that may well lead you to different work in the future.

Walter Wink described prayer in a similar way in his trilogy of books dealing with The Powers That Be. In prayer, we need to let all the needs, concerns, and fears we touch in the world and in ourselves flow on through us to God. We can’t afford to hold on to any of them. Then, we need to wait to receive back from God those particular needs that coincide with our own calling and passion. Such a process requires faith that God is (whatever form you may conceive for God) and faith that you live life in partnership with God and with all the other people God also calls to work for justice and peace in this world.

Let us pray for our new President, that he will continue to travel his journey with wisdom, energy, and discernment. Let us pray for ourselves as well that we will do the same.

Thanks for continuing to bless me as we journey together.

--Jack Price

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