Hank Comes Out of the Cafe . . . and Into Your Face

Hello, my fellow nudgees. I hoped there were many of us out there - that I wasn't the only one who got nudged to be a little . . .  different. Now I know there ARE. I've been overwhelmed and gratified by the response to my guest blogging last week, most of you hailing from Jen Hatmaker's blog. One of you said, "I am here . . . land of the crazy." Someone else said "I think we were separated at birth." Comment after comment echoed the cry: I want to be real Jesus to people. It's kind of lonely when poeple look blankly at your passion. Welcome, welcome, welcome, all of you. This is a place where you can feel free to express the truth you're finding and share where it's nudging you to. What do you say we carry on?

For those of you just joining us, we're looking to Hank D'Angelo, Allison's motorcycle riding instructor and spiritual mentor (I still like that skill set) in The Reluctant Prophet trilogy for nudge-related wisdom. Just as Jesus did (and I don't think I quite realized this when I was writing the books) Hank usually answers Allison's questions with a challenge. Each week we're deaing with a different Hank challenge, hoping it will jar us into taking up our own.

Normally Hank and Allison have their mentoring sessions in a coffee shop, but today's conversation takes place in Allison's living room, shortly after she's been released from jail for refusing to break up a feed-the-homeless event that turned into a spontaneous opportunity for Allison to speak out (in the park pictured above). Which she never intended to do and still doesn't know what to make of. 

But Hank does.

She says, "You can't hide from this. Allison, you are a prophet."

Allison, of course, balks, saying she doesn't foresee things, a common misconception about prophets. She argues that she's not the caliber of Isaiah and Jeremiah. She says she's not a good risk for this because she's never had a dream and followed it through. To use her own words:

        "I've had no sense of direction. I've failed at just about everything I tried because I didn't really try."

    Hank's answer? "I think those are all the very reasons God picked you."

    I'd love to take a look at that first. Are the excuses we use NOT to step out and do what we know we're being called to do -- aren't those the very qualities that make us perfect for the job?

    By anybody's logic, I shouldn't be in a career where I'm open to criticism all the time, because a few unkind words can take me down so fast it's like watching a quarterback sack. Yet that same ultra-sensitivity makes me extremely careful about the words I use. 

    There's no way I should be a full-time writer because I'm such an extrovert, and the creation of fiction requires large blocks of quiet alone time. That means I have to try to create very real characters, people to keep me company so I'm not always inviting somebody out for lunch. (The grieving when a series is finished is the price I pay for this craziness)

     And should I have a ministry? I didn't go to seminary. I didn't graduate from a Christian college. I'm not even a traditional evaneglical. What that all adds up to is a constant seeking what is true and real right along side of the people I minister to, especially the young ones.

    I could have gotten away with a lot of the "I can'ts" in there and stayed with public school teaching and be retired right now. Except that God wouldn't let me, and I mean that. I don't take credit for seeing the light. I saw the dark of deep depression; God nudged me when I was in that cave. It was either come out or die.

    Hank also points out that Allison BECAME all that she now knows before she knew it. In other words, "You didn't choose this job -- it chose you."

    Allison replies, "And you're saying I don't have any choice but to keep doing it."

    Hank sits back and says, "There you go."

    So there WE go. What choice do we have but to see our "I can'ts" as "That's why I shoulds" and do the job that has chosen us, no matter what it is? After all, a nudge isn't just a suggestion . . .

    Hey, so share with us, willya?

    What are the limitations you think you have that keep you from following that nudge? Are they actually the very reasons why you should?

    What job has already chosen you? Have you been doing it in some way all along?

    All of us here in "crazy land" want to hear. We need to be encouraged and inspired and kicked in the tail. And that's a job we're ALL called to.

 

Blessings,

Nancy Rue