Callings

"We believe that a man must be called of God by prophecy and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority to preach the gospel and adminsiter in the ordinances thereof." Article of Faith #5

My husband just got a new calling. After a couple years serving in the Stake High Council he has been called as our Ward's High Priest Group Leader. The Stake President who called him gave him specific instructions to council with me as he made decisions, reminding him that although he will have other priesthood leaders set apart as his assistants, that my insights and input were valuable and appropriate as well.

So as we've been pondering over the ward roster, I've been thinking a lot about the nature of callings.

I believe that many times church callings ARE inspired - that leaders are able to let go of their own personal preferences and bias to open up to know who the Lord would have serve in a given capacity at a particular time. However, I also have seen more than a few cases when choices appeared to be more a matter of desperation than inspiration. Also, I do not believe God ever has things so rigidly planned that only one certain person will do. In plenty of cases I believe there are multiple possibilities for who COULD serve in a given calling and all get the Lord's stamp of approval.

All that being said, it has been quite humbling to go through this process with my husband as we jointly have prayed to know who he should get as assistants in this calling. We went to the temple together to consider it deeper and have pondered on it for days. It has been interesting to watch the layers of our own opinions get peeled away to reveal names of individuals that neither one of us would ever have come up with on our own.

I have served in a variety of callings over the years - some of those callings I felt were truly inspired and some I felt were a matter of sticking someone into a slot that needed filled and believing I'd do no harm.

But this I know for sure: when human beings are willing to humble themselves and ask for God to communicate His will in matters like this, truly sacred communication occurs.