The Diocese of Atlanta will elect its tenth bishop on June 2nd. And, I am glad to be one of the six candidates. 

In conversations over the last couple of months people have talked to me about "winning" the election. What a misnomer!  

Politicians talk in terms of winning.  Horse jockeys talk in terms of winning. But, we who offer ourselves to God as servants talk in terms of calling. When the people of God rightly discern God's calling, everybody wins!  Winning gets multiplied!  This will sound naive to some but that's OK, so does faith.  

When the church listens and responds to the Spirit, everybody wins because everybody lands precisely where God would have them; divinely interdependent. To understand this is the difference between collegiality and  competitiveness; between, career and vocation; between church and the world.  We need each other and a healthy dose of conversation and prayer to know where best to serve. And we need a healthy dose of courage to actually be what God is calling us to be.  

What do we get for approaching life this way?  We get what St. Paul got, "...a sending neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father." (Galatians 1:1)

So, brothers and sisters, "...give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things, you shall never fall."  (2 Peter 1:10)

God's Peace & Blessings,

Rob+