Using this issue of JLE as a resource, the following guide might guide ethical discussion.
[1] You may have heard Frederick Buechner’s definition of vocation as the intersection of one’s great joy with the world’s deep need. There are times when it feels like the world’s deep need is too deep to meet our joy. There are times when we feel the call to pick up our cross and follow Christ is too difficult to bear with gladness. The four essays in this issue speak to such times. To begin the discussion together have each participant name some of the needs they hear the world calling out in the essays or in their own experiences of their neighbors in the world today.
[2] Having named some of the needs of our neighbors and our world, consider what gifts we have been given by God that offer us joy. For example, Courtney Wilder speaks of the gifts of gardening, community partnerships, and friendship. Consider too what each person feels they have been called to share whether or not it offers joy.
[3] Finally, having named needs and gifts, consider discussing the following questions openly with each other. Even when we cannot see a way to solve a deep crisis, in what ways are we called to act by God in the present moment? In what ways are these particular callings helpful and even joyful to us when we answer them?
