I have always been fascinated by the concept of calling — the idea that somehow, out of the infinite possibilities with which someone could be presented, they could find the one vocation where they truly fit. What has boggled my mind even beyond that is the idea that the providence of God could somehow orchestrate that process perfectly.
Recently, though, I had a few conversations that brought a lot of clarity to my mind about these questions. Specifically, I had the opportunity to speak with two people whose lives are a continual testament to the truth and simplicity of providence: Dr. Hal Poe and Professor Mary Anne Poe.
Dr. Hal Poe serves as the Charles Colson Professor of Faith and Culture in the School of Theology and Missions at Union University. His wife, Professor Mary Anne Poe, serves as the dean for the School of Social Work at Union University.
Dr. and Professor Poe showed me a picture of a life lived according to providence that was far more simple than the questions ever-swirling in my mind had led me to believe was possible.
“Hal and I met each other when we were students at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,” said Mrs. Poe. “I was getting a master of divinity degree, he was completing his Ph.D. So we met as students there, both of us having had a sense of calling to ministry.”
Mrs. Poe talks about her calling to ministry confidently and with joy; I take it as exemplary. What strikes me, though, a layer beneath the story she is telling, is how serendipitous it is that Mr. and Mrs. Poe met while both pursuing their individual calls to ministry. It is a good story, but this detail is far from the most striking piece of evidence of providence in their lives.
“After seminary, we did a variety of things before we made it to Union. He pastored a church, he worked at the Kentucky Baptist Convention, then he taught at Southern Seminary,” said Mrs. Poe. “So for 15 years, we were doing various and sundry other things before being here.”
For a moment, this part struck me as a potentially unfortunate bit of the story. The wide range of occupations Dr. Poe was able to hold during these 15 years is impressive, of course, but in the back of my mind, I cannot help but wonder: Did this also mean a 15 year delay in Mrs. Poe’s ability to serve the Lord through social work?
So I ask. As it turns out, nothing could be further from the truth.
“I worked in a congregational context as a minister, doing congregational social work kinds of things,” said Mrs. Poe. “I did counseling, I helped the church be involved in the community, doing ministries with local organizations. I did family life education, we started support groups. Just addressing those holistic needs.”
As she lists the various practical ways she served her community during this 15-year period before Union, her passion for hands-on service is palpable.
“So he was teaching and doing administrative work, and I was doing congregational social work.”
The way Mrs. Poe ends this sentence sticks out to me. It may seem simple at first, but I think it highlights something important about their story together. Though they have distinct skill sets and areas of influence, they each have consistently, throughout their lives together, found opportunities to do ministry work for their communities in the ways that suit each of them individually.
The almost-strangely-coincidental nature of their journey together is not lost on either of them. Dr. Poe mentions it unprompted.
“It is fascinating how, with both of us having a ministerial call, the Lord has always opened up things for both of us to do,” he says. “And though David Dockery wanted me to come to Union, Union at that time had a desperate need for a social work professor. That opened up at the same time.”
Though Professor Poe clearly has the credentials to be considered an academic, she prefers to think of her work more in terms of tangible, hands-on service outside the classroom. “Hal does the writing,” she says.
And this seems to be a fair way to characterize things. Dr. Poe echoes the sentiment.
“I’ve published 20 books, I’ve contributed chapters to another 30 books and published something like 300 articles. I do a lot of writing,” Dr. Poe says.
Hearing those numbers is wild to me. But what makes it truly stunning is realizing that all of those books, chapters and articles have the potential to impact and change lives. Though different from the social work of his wife, this is ministry work. In this, they are unified.
Kirbi Cochran, an intercultural studies and journalism double minor who has taken classes from both Dr. and Mrs. Poe, shares their almost coincidental vocational and ministerial unity.
“I took classes with both of the Poes at the same time,” Cochran says. “I was in Social and Economic Justice, as well as New Testament in the same fall semester. Something that I found really fascinating, being in both of their classes at the same time, was that often in the same week, they would talk about a similar example, or analogy, or they would even reference the same verses. Or one would talk about justice in the Bible and one would talk about justice in the community. I was seeing it from two completely different viewpoints but from the same heart.”
The details of the Poes’ disciplines may differ, but their calling is unified. There is a beauty and simplicity in this that I find so comforting. Neither of them went to seminary in order to meet the other. They each went to serve the Lord in the specific ways which they were best suited; in doing that, they met.
To me, the story of Dr. Poe and Professor Poe is a microcosm of providence and calling properly understood. Maybe it is simpler than I once believed. Maybe a life lived according to one’s calling is simply a life lived true to one’s gifts with a constant desire to serve the Lord. Perhaps this is the recipe for a life story that is almost-strangely-coincidental.
Photo by Laila Al-Hagal
