I Have a Greater Calling Than Myself

I have a greater calling than myself.

I have a calling to God, the creator of Heaven and the Earth, the fish and the trees and the lakes and the valleys and the mountains. The one who shaped me and counted all the hairs on my head and breathed life into me. The one who called me in the first place. She is who I have the greatest responsibility to.

I have a calling to my future congregants, clients, patients, and everyone who I encounter. I have a calling to help them connect to themselves, to each other, to God, and to resources.

I have a calling to the sisterhood and all gender minorities. The trans women and trans men and cisgender women and non-binary folks doing ministry, the gender minorities who feel called to ministry but doubt themselves, the young people who will look up to me as a role model and community leader.

I have a calling to the queer community. A community hurt and marginalized by the church. A community with an understandable apprehension of Christianity. I have a calling to make church spaces not only safer and more welcoming, but to actually design religious spaces to promote the thriving of the queer community. To support the queer community in the ways that they ask for support.

I have a calling to young adults. To the young people who long and yearn for Jesus, for justice, for a church institution that addresses systemic harms and hierarchies. Who know that Christianity is about inclusivity, mutuality, love, service, equity, harm reduction, and a New Heaven and a New Earth.

I have a calling to the mental health community. To those who think that Jesus and therapy are incompatible. To those who have been told that prayer alone will fix their mental health. To those who feel like they’re a bad Christian because they struggle with their mental health.

I have a calling to the interfaith community. To those who know that we are each others’ keepers. To those who know that our differences are places for respect, for expanding how we encounter the divine. To those who don’t get defensive at our points of divergence but instead see them as points of entry into deeper relationships.

I have a calling to the reproductive justice community. To those who have been harassed at Planned Parenthoods. To those deconstructing from purity culture. To those who have no desire to follow traditional paths for relationships, parenthood, or family structures. To those who want full body autonomy.

I have a calling to the least of these, those with their backs against the wall, the marginalized and oppressed, those who don’t fall into the status quo. I am directly called to defend and support you, to advocate for your best interests, to engage in mutual aid.

On the days that are tough, where I want to give up and abandon this call, when the light seems to have extinguished, I must remember above all who I am called to serve.