Using The Word "called"

[franciscanheart]

OK, well let me clarify then. I probably was reading in a lot more than was there, my apologies.
 
If you said you felt called to plant a garden, would you also say you wanted to do it? Would there be something wrong with saying you wanted to do it even though it was a different, deeper kind of want than most people think of when they say they want something?

I don't understand how you've managed to manipulate this conversation into something so different from the OP, especially considering it was only a few posts ago. I'm asking YOU if YOU would use the word "called" in "everyday" situations. I'm the last person to say "I feel called". I was annoyed that even entered my brain since I think it's a little vomit-inducing when people always say how they feel "called" to do things like go to the gym or Fish for Life.

It occurred to me that maybe the reason people use the word "called" is because it's convenient and such a huge word in the vocabulary of hyper-Catholic people.

[Era Might]

Beyond the vocabulary, it's an interesting question you're raising: how does God act in our lives? I think your desire to build a garden is itself part of a garden, something that grows out of seeds you have planted. Building the garden (or doing some other act, like choosing a job, etc.) is a way to see if fruit grows. You can't really know whether you were "called" until after the fact. You only know a tree by its fruits.

[arfink]

:huh: WAT?

 

I'm not really trying to divert here. I'm saying, if people are uncomfortable with using the word called for things, why not use the word want? What is wrong with that?

[franciscanheart]

Oh, and quit reading into crapoli. I say what I mean. If I do not, that is my problem, not yours. Take me at face value, please. More often than not, face value is reality.

[franciscanheart]

Beyond the vocabulary, it's an interesting question you're raising: how does God act in our lives? I think your desire to build a garden is itself part of a garden, something that grows out of seeds you have planted. Building the garden (or doing some other act, like choosing a job, etc.) is a way to see if fruit grows. You can't really know whether you were "called" until after the fact. You only know a tree by its fruits.

mind:blown.


Wait... what? So... I build my partially-raised bed, grow food, and then what? Do I know when the fruit has produced from my beds or my hypothetical trees if I was meant to do it? I sometimes get lost in things like these because, why should I plant that pear tree or nurture the mulberry bush except for my own gain? And won't the mulberry grow without me? I don't know. The whole thing makes my brain hurt.

[Amppax]

Oh, and quit reading into crapoli. I say what I mean. If I do not, that is my problem, not yours. Take me at face value, please. More often than not, face value is reality.

Methinks you need a chill pill. Why u so confrontational?

[arfink]

Very well, face value time.

 

When do you use the word "called" in your life? Do you feel CALLED to eat healthy? Do you feel CALLED to have pets? Children? A farm?

If I said, I feel called to have a garden or an orchard, would that be strange?

I am often annoyed at the overuse of certain words among Catholic people if for no other reason that it sounds cheap and fake and cheesy and sometimes unnecessary. But I also know I tend to be one of the ones on the outermost edges of the fold when it comes to things like this.

I was trying to think of a way to explain the draw I have to gardening and how I feel we should ALL be growing SOME of our own food but I couldn't come up with anything other than, "I believe we are all called to grow food."

And then this was born. Stupid, I know, but I'm still curious.

 

It wouldn't be strange IMO to say you felt called to have a garden. Do you feel strange saying it?

[CrossCuT]

I just feel like when someone uses the word "called" when referring to something "I feel called to do X, Y or Z" it makes it seem like there implications of a higher being doing the calling. Im pretty sure thats what its suppose to  mean...not just an arbitrary word.

 

To me, these two sentences mean something slightly different because the inspiration may be mainly coming from somewhere else depending on which word you use.

"I want to go drive my car"

"I feel called to drive my car"

 

 

[Era Might]

mind:blown.


Wait... what? So... I build my partially-raised bed, grow food, and then what? Do I know when the fruit has produced from my beds or my hypothetical trees if I was meant to do it? I sometimes get lost in things like these because, why should I plant that pear tree or nurture the mulberry bush except for my own gain? And won't the mulberry grow without me? I don't know. The whole thing makes my brain hurt.

 

Maybe it is only for your own gain...but you won't know that until after the fact. Does God call us, or maybe a better word is "lead" us, into failure, into temptation? If he didn't, then why do we pray "lead us not into temptation"? Christ was lead, or called, into the desert to be tempted. Before that, the Father says "I have called my son out of Egypt..." after he had called Joseph into Egypt. He "called" the Jews out of Egypt into the desert...they had to do 40 years of grumbling and wandering before they found their way out.

 

I don't know what you're going to find in your garden...maybe it will be good, maybe not. But if you're drawn to it, go for it.

[franciscanheart]

It wouldn't be strange IMO to say you felt called to have a garden. Do you feel strange saying it?

Yup. Called to have a garden? I feel strongly about gardening and the benefits for people but I don't look down on people who DON'T tend to the earth. Which would perhaps lead someone to say certain people are called to tend to the earth where others are not. But that just seems... weird. Would you say you were called to do something similar?

[CrossCuT]

[franciscanheart]

Maybe it is only for your own gain...but you won't know that until after the fact. Does God call us, or maybe a better word is "lead" us, into failure, into temptation? If he didn't, then why do we pray "lead us not into temptation"? Christ was lead, or called, into the desert to be tempted. Before that, the Father says "I have called my son out of Egypt..." after he had called Joseph into Egypt. He "called" the Jews out of Egypt into the desert...they had to do 40 years of grumbling and wandering before they found their way out.
 
I don't know what you're going to find in your garden...maybe it will be good, maybe not. But if you're drawn to it, go for it.

If we were standing in the same room and I wasn't a total weirdo about physical touch, I would hug you right now. I'm going to plant my garden. Thanks, Era.

[Eowyn]

Lil Red, I feel called to tell you that your avatar is making me swoooon. 

 

 

 

[arfink]

I wouldn't ever say I feel called to tend a garden, no. Not in the usual sense of the word. I would say that about art though, FWIW.

[arfink]

BTW, I only suggested the alternative wording because you seemed unsure about using the word calling in this context.