This is a guest post by Mindy Hirst.
I love to start work in the morning with absolutely no plan, meandering through my day without establishing any sort of order first. I scurry from email to email, attacking to do notes scribbled on scraps of paper and returning phone calls in no particular order. On days like these, however, the urgent wins and I realize at 4pm that I have gotten a lot done, but haven’t made any progress on the larger goals I’m trying to accomplish.
Although a day like this is healthy on occasion, a lifestyle of meandering could be detrimental to making any progress on the things close to my heart. That is why checking in is so important—especially when it comes to my overall calling. It keeps me on track, motivated, aware and helps me think through problems. Not only that, but it allows me to encourage others.
Checking in helps keep me on track.
When I’m reaching for a goal, I tend to put aside anything not central to that goal. Checking in is a regular goal that keeps me on track in the short run.
Checking in keeps me motivated
When I know I am going to have to check in with someone, I want to have something to report. This keeps me working until I have something tangible to share.
Checking in keeps me aware
When I’m busy, it is easy to do things without thinking about how they relate to my overall calling. But when I know I will have to put it into words for somebody else, I pay attention to how everything relates to what God has called me to do.
Checking in helps me think through problems
The exercise of checking in can get me moving when I’ve hit a snag. Sometimes the ability to put into words what I’m up to allows my mind to solve problems in a different way than I’ve approached it before. It also allows me to receive input from others from a different perspective.
Checking in allows me to encourage others
When I hear what God is doing in the lives of others, it gets me excited to keep going in my own journey. Checking in is my opportunity to do that for others.
An opportunity to Check in regularly:
The On Call in Culture community has started a Check In Team that will give you an opportunity to check in on a weekly basis with what God is doing through you in your work. When you join the check in team, you will begin to receive weekly emails at random times that ask a simple question:
“How are you being On Call in Culture for Christ today?”
That is your cue to check in right then with the On Call in Culture community on Facebook and/or Twitter. Whether you are in a strategic planning meeting, answering emails or designing a new system to do your job more efficiently, you can relate what you are doing right then with how God is influencing the world for good through you.
A note about the On Call in Culture community: The On Call in Culture idea is inspired by Wisdom & Wonder, the translated work of Abraham Kuyper (Dutch Theologian 1837-1920). He was passionate about a concept called “Common Grace” which when played out, encourages Christians to engage in culture to bring God’s blessing to others and bring God glory. Wisdom and Wonder specifically addresses how common grace figures into the fields of art and science.
Mindy, thanks for writing today’s post and for introducing the concept of “On Call in Culture” and “Check ins.”
Am I understanding correctly that “On Call in Culture” means to view what we do each day as a part of God’s work in this work?
And the “check ins” serve as a weekly reminder to see what we’re doing as a part of God’s work, share that with others, and learn from & be inspired by others who do the same?
Precisely! God can bring grace to this world through our daily tasks. They don’t have to be what we think of as “spiritual” activities because when we use the gifts and talents He gave us for His glory, they become spiritual in a sense. Kuyper says, “Thinking itself is a spiritual activity.” (Wisdom and Wonder pg 68)