Calling

Gregg’s Reflection

I was baptized a Lutheran at age 28 after a tour of world religions. Over the next decades, even though Luther called us the Priesthood of all Believers, I never heard a good theology of vocation. When I spoke with pastors about a sense of calling, the response seemed to be quit your job and go to seminary. Well, I did quit my job, but not for 25 years, and not to go to seminary.

In the Living School, Richard Rohr spoke to us of St Francis’ last words to his brothers. “I have done what is mine to do. Pray to God to show you yours.” I sold my business at age 48 to pursue calling, what is mine to do. I have spent almost 25 years in this pursuit, and it has been the most rewarding work of my life. Have you found what is yours to do? In The Teachings of Don Juan, Carlos Castaneda quoted the Sorcerer as saying for each of us there is a path with a heart. To find that path is to live the warrior’s life.

God’s faint path has been my spiritual journey to live out what is mine to do. Weaving together career, family, and spiritual journey creates an holistically integrated life. Jesus spent 30 of his 33 years as a carpenter, and three years as an itinerant preacher. Our work can be holy too. Find inspiration in the wisdom that follows.

Scripture

I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. John 17:4

All things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. And, those whom He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified. Romans 8:28,30

Let each of you lead the life that the Lord assigned to you, to which God has called you. 1 Corinthians 7:17

From the beginning of time the individual person responding to divine purpose still occupies a central place in God’s plan to bring all humanity into a loving relationship with himself. RENOVARE Bible notes On Isaiah, OT p. 978

Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3.

Spiritual formation is largely dependent on our capacity to live a called life. RENOVARE Bible notes on Ephesians 4:1

The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13

Ancient Writings

The glory of God is the human person fully alive.

St. Irenaeus

Whatever you see your soul to desire according to God, do that thing, and you shall keep your heart safe.

St Anthony, from Thomas Merton’s Wisdom of the Desert, p. 7

My brothers! My brothers! God has called me by the way of humility and showed me the way of simplicity. . . . And the Lord told me what He wanted: He wanted me to be a new fool in the world. God did not wish to lead us by any way other than this knowledge. . . .

The Assisi Compilation, chap. 18. See Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 2, The Founder, p. 132–133.

There is almost a sensual longing for communion with others who have a large vision. The Immense fulfillment of the friendship between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality impossible to describe.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Modern Writings

Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.

Parker Palmer, Let your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, p. 3

I am convinced that the Book of Jonah can best be read as God moving someone from a mere sense of a religious job or career to an actual sense of personal call, vocation, or destiny. It takes being “swallowed by a beast” and taken into a dark place of nesting and nourishing that allows us to move to a deeper place called personal vocation. It involves a movement from being ego-driven to being soul-drawn. The energy is very different. It comes quietly and generously from within. Once we have accepted our call, we do not look for payment, reward, or advancement because we have found our soul gift. We must listen, wait, and pray for our charism and call. Most of us are really only good at one or two things. Meditation should lead to a clarity about who we are and, maybe even more, who we are not. This second revelation is just as important as the first. I have found it difficult over the years to sit down and tell people what is not their gift. It is usually very humiliating for individuals to face their own illusions and inabilities. We are not usually a truth-speaking people. We don’t speak the truth to one another, nor does our culture encourage the journey toward the True Self. The false self often sets itself up for unnecessary failures and humiliations.

Richard Rohr, Dancing Standing Still: Healing the World from a Place of Prayer, p. 82–83.

Can I join God in knowing who God knows me to be? Can I join God in seeing who God sees me to be . . . ? This is salvation. 

James Finley, “Mystical Sobriety,” Living School Alumni Quarterly, issue 3

Shortly before dying, Saint Francis told his band of Brothers, “I have done what is mine to do. Now you must do what is yours to do.” The work is merely to discover and enjoy the identity you already have. God only expects you to be who you really are. That’s why the most courageous thing you might ever do is to accept yourself and be that man, and no other. My job is simply to be me, warts and all. This is so much harder, and takes so much more trust and surrender. But it’s the giving of the whole self that matters, not the perfection of it.

Richard Rohr, On the Threshold of Transformation, p. 353

Most of what God is doing in the world happens in and through the vocations of his people. Years between 20 and 40 are the valley of life where people figure out who they are and what they will do with the rest of their lives. They need teachers who are word made flesh to come along beside them.

Steven Garver Q Conference 4/11

I have a greater peace and am close to God when I am not trying to be anything special, but simply orienting my life fully and completely towards what seems to be required of a man like me in a time like this. I am obscurely convinced that there is a need in the world for something I can provide, and a need for me to provide it. 

The wonder of being brought, by God, around a corner and to realize a new road is opening up-which he alone knows. And that there is no way of traveling it but in Christ and with Him. I have something to do for Him and, if I do that, everything else will follow.

Thomas Merton, Daily Meditations from his Journals, p. 12

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Carl McColman, Christian Mystics, p. 178

In indigenous ways of knowing, it is understood that each living being has a particular role to play. Every being is endowed with certain gifts, its own intelligence, its own spirit, its own story. Our stories tell us that the Creator gave these to us, as original instructions. The foundation of education is to discover that gift within us and learn to use it well.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, p. 100

Trust Your Vocation. You have to start trusting your unique vocation and allow it to grow deeper and stronger in you so it can blossom in your community. . . . Look at Rembrandt and van Gogh. They trusted their vocations and did not allow anyone to lead them astray. With true Dutch stubbornness, they followed their vocations from the moment they recognized them. They didn’t bend over backward to please their friends or enemies. Both ended their lives in poverty, but both left humanity with gifts that could heal the minds and hearts of many generations of people. Think of these two men and trust that you, too, have a unique vocation that is worth claiming and living out faithfully. More important than ever is to be very faithful to do well the few things I am called to do and hold on to the joy and peace they bring me.

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devo, 12/22/20

The power of the stars is nothing compared to the energy of a person whose will has been freed . . . and who is thus enabled to co-create the cosmos together with God. God’s top priority is the creation of a world in which the goods of the earth are equitably distributed, where no one is forgotten or left out, and where no one can rest until everyone has enough to eat, the oppressed have been liberated, and justice and peace are the norm among the nations and religions of the world. Until then, even the joy of transforming union is incomplete. The commitment to the spiritual journey is not a commitment to pure joy, but to taking responsibility for the whole human family, its needs and destiny. We are not our own; we belong to everyone else.

Thomas Keating, The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience, p. 104.

There is only one concern for the man who gives his heart to God: Am I doing God’s will?” (i.e., Am I helping God’s people?”)

Richard Rohr, On the Threshold of Transformation, p. 262

The secret of vocation is the calling, the spiritual dimension. The vision quest is a seeking of the discovery of one’s vocation. It’s an act, an activity. It comes from the collective and reenters the culture. The call comes from a collective need.

William Everson, Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics,p. 183

When enough of us are freed from the unbearable weight of doing everything and do the one little thing that is ours to do now, then, we can trust God can get done through all of us what none of us can do alone.

Brian McLaren, Great Spiritual Migration, p. 198

Our only job is to become who we already are.

Thomas Merton’s last words. 

A call to generativity; turning towards that rising generation, offering whatever I know that they might find useful, and learning from them.

Parker Palmer, On the Brink of Everything

Your life is your opportunity to participate in the cosmic drama of God’s eternal plan for the most glorious universe possible. Your life is God’s paint brush on the canvas of history. You are here as part of an eternal plan of an infinite God. You are yourself an eternal never dying spirit. God has put you here in this point in time and space for you to create with Him that part of the universe that makes up your life.

Dallas Willard, Practicing the Presence of God

The wanderer longs for two things: deep fulfillment (truly belonging in this world), and the ability to provide a genuine, soul-infused service to his more-than-human community. These two things-fulfillment and service-cannot be obtained separately. True fulfillment arises out of service. He must first discover the essence of his soul's desires, make a commitment to those desires, and then acquire the skills to embody them to the world. He must cultivate the attitude, spirit, and temperament of service-the mindset that will make his life a gift, a giveaway.

Bill Plotkin, Nature and the Human Soul, p. 286

Ikigai is a huge predictor of a longer, happier life. Here’s how to find yours

If you want to embrace ikigai, a good starting point is to consider what truly matters to you in life and then aim to make that more of a priority. Try to do things that bring their own, intrinsic rewards (instead of things to gain some kind of external reward, such as money or status).

Christian Jarrett, BBC Science Focus Magazine, 9/1/24