23 May 2011

Deep Joy

Ever heard of Professor Stanley Unwin? A comedian and writer, he invented his own bizarre language of "Unwinese". A regular sight on British TV in the Sixties, he appeared in films like 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' and even in a little-known Gerry Anderson TV series called 'The Secret Service', speaking his own particular brand of gobbledygook You can find out more about him here.

One phrase that's particularly associated with Unwin is the words 'deep joy'. The words are emotive, capturing a feeling of lasting contentment. That sums up exactly what I've been looking for. The sort of satisfaction that doesn't slip through my fingers before you know it. A lasting assurance that I'm precisely where I need to be.

It came up to the top of the to-do pile yesterday when the following quotation was shared with me - this sums up better than I can where I need to be in my christian walk. Here, the writer is talking on the subject of 'vocation':

‎"The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet." — Frederick Buechner, from the book 'Wishful Thinking'.

Buechner concludes that God usually calls you to the kind of work
(a) that you need most to do and
(b) that the world most needs to have done.

I'm drawing out Venn diagrams even as we speak. Where these two aspects meet - that's where I need to be! Or is that gobbledygook to you?

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