some freddie

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a man's life is full of all sorts of voices calling him in all sorts of directions. some of them are voices from inside and some of them are voices from outside. the more alive and alert we are, the more clamorous our lives are. which do we listen to? what kind of voice do we listen for?

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it means for us simply that we must be careful with our lives, for Christ's sake, because it would seem thatthey are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously. everybody knows that. we need no one to tell it to us. yet in another way perhaps we do always need to be told, because there is always the temptation to believe that we have all the time in the world, whereas the truth of it is that we do not. we have only a life, and the choice of how we are going to live it must be our own choice, not one that we let the world make for us. because surely Marquand was right that for each of us there comes a point of no return, a point beyond which we no longer have life enough left to go back and start all over again.

to isaiah, the voice said, "go," and for each of us there are many voices that say it, but the question is which one will we obey with our lives, which of the voices that call is to be the one that we answer. no one can say, of course, except each for himself, but i believe that it is possible to say at least this in general to all of us: we should go with our lives where we most need to go and where we are most needed.

where we most need to go. maybe that means that the voice we should listen to most as we choose a vocation is the voice that we might think we should listen to least, and that is the voice of our own gladness. when can we do that makes us gladdest, what can we do that leaves us with the strong sense of sailing true north and of peace, which is much of what gladness is? is it making things with our hands out of wood or stone or paint on canvas? or is it making something we hope like truth out of words? or is it making people laugh or weep in a way that cleanses their spirit? i believe that if it is a thing that makes us truly glad, then it is a good thing and it is our thing and it is the calling voice that we were made to answer with our lives.

and also, where we are most needed. in a world where there is so much drudgery, so much grief, so much emptiness and fear and pain, our gladness in our work is as much needed as we ourselves need to be glad. if we keep our eyes and ears open, our hearts open, we will find the place surely. the phone will ring and we will jump not so much out of our skin as into our skin. if we keep our lives open, the right place will find us.

jesus said, 'man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,' and in the end every word that proceeds from the mouth of God is the same word, and the word is Christ himself. and in the end that is the vocation, the calling of us all, the calling to be Christs. to be Christs in whatever way we are able to be. to be Christs with whatever gladness we have and in whatever place, among whatever brothers we are called to. that is the vocation, the destiny to which we were all of us called even before the foundations of the world.

'o thou, who art the God no less of those who know thee not than of those who love thee well, be present with us at the times of choosing when time stands still and all that lies behind and all that lies ahead are caught up in the mystery of a moment. be present especially with the young who must choose between many voices. help them to know how much an old world needs their youth and gladness. help them to know that there are words of truth and healing that will never be spoken unless they speak them, and deeds of compassion and courage that will never be done unless they do them. help them to never mistake success for victory or failure for defeat. grant that they may never be entirely content with whatever bounty the world may bestow upon them, but that they may know at last that they were created not for happiness but for joy, and that joy is to him alone who, sometimes with tears in his eyes, commits himself in love to thee and to his brothers. lead them and all thy world ever deeper into the knowledge that finally all men are one and that there can never really be joy for any until there is joy for all. in Christ's name we ask it and for his sake. amen.'
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