Hello people! Did you have an amazing weekend? I know you did and to give the following week a good start here I am sharing this beautiful piece ‘The Calling’ with you! Now, you may be wondering what this is all about. Before getting you acquainted with it let me share with you a small story.
I am sure some of you are familiar with the story of Moses. For others, he was an Egyptian prince who delivered Hebrews from slavery and led them to a promised land he never saw. He is a powerful figure who personifies the human struggle for freedom, balanced by a sense of belonging to and thus having a responsibility towards a community.
The story is as follows, Moses was out doing his job one day, minding his own business, keeping watch over the flocks, when he saw a bush on fire. When Moses went to investigate, he saw that the bush was burning, but was not being consumed by the flames. Moses went to investigate his burning bush, and when he got close to it, he heard a voice that seemed to come from inside it. The voice told Moses to do something – first to remove his sandals because he was standing on holy ground. And then the voice told Moses to become a spokesperson for his people, who were being held as slaves in Egypt – specifically, the voice to go to the Pharaoh and persuade him to give the Hebrews their freedom. The Moses didn’t want the job, and offered legitimate excuses for not being able to accept the mission. Eventually the voice and Moses worked things out, and Moses accepted the call. This was Moses’ “burning bush” experience, when he came face to face with something unexpected, which at first made him curious, and then made him anxious, but ultimately caused him to change his way of thinking or believing or feeling about himself and his world and to do something he didn’t really want to do.
Friends, have you ever felt an inner urge to follow something; may be an occupation or a trade? Or have you ever felt a strong impulse like an inner voice or a voice from God, or a combination of both? That is exactly ‘The Calling’! We’ve all seen something like this bush in our lives, haven’t we? I saw it one morning at sunrise, as I watched the dawn light skim the tops of the trees, blinding me with a bright flash of yellow-gold. You’ve seen it in the smile of a baby, or in your lover’s eyes. You’ve felt it in the middle of a prayer service while people were singing a familiar bhajan as chills covered your arms or in the silence after the last note. It has whispered to you in a tender voice. It has held your attention and stopped you in your tracks.So we all have had a burning bush experience in our lives! A voice from an unexpected place calling us to do something outside of our comfort zone, making an offer we couldn’t refuse? We’ve all had these kinds of experiences at one time or another, whether we realize it consciously or not. What do I mean by a burning bush experience? Whether it is a major, life altering one, or one that has more to do with something on a less global level, think of it as one of those experiences that may have the following components: it comes unsolicited, unexpected, perhaps un-welcomed, unwanted; it changes our way of thinking, or believing, or feeling about some aspect of the world and/or about ourselves and leaves us unsettled and perhaps distressed, compelled to do something; it places a burden on us that we feel is uncomfortable and seems unfair, which may test us in some way, or require us to go outside of our comfort zones.
Friends if we are searching for answers in life (and all of us are doing that, trust me) we don’t have to look any further than our own self. We just have to tap into our inner voice for guidance. We have only one life and hence we should live it to the fullest so that we have no regrets at the end. The things we want to do, we should do it! Most of us just think that we have all the time in this world and that is how every dream of ours takes a backseat and we move on with our normal lives. We should pursue our dreams and not look back later in life, when it is too late to do anything about it.
So what are you guys waiting for? Go on and find your ‘burning bush moment’. Begin creating the kind of life that you dream of. It may take you a week, a month or a year, but that doesn't matter. Just listen to your calling and you'll become a more positive and optimistic person. Even Mahatma Gandhi has rightly said, ‘The only tyrant I accept is my inner voice.’
