What is My Vocation?
“We must recognize that divine intervention is nowhere near as simple a thing as we might imagine. For it to sustain us and give us staying power- to help us remain firm and see God’s hand at every stage of our lives—it must look quite different from what we would usually prescribe for ourselves. . . To allow God to be God we must follow him for who he is and what he intends, and not for what we want or what we prefer.”
This quote is from a good book on vocation that I read last year by Ravi Zecharias entitled The Grand Weaver (2007). A dictionary defintion of the word “vocation” calls it a “regular occupation or profession for which a person is particulary suited.” As a secondary definition, a “vocation” is a calling – and for many- only clergy have callings. Regular people, if you can call them that, have jobs. Clergy pursue a vocation.
But this seems all wrong. Everybody has a vocation and not just the preachers. Everyone is being called by God and is subject to a universal calling.
Kelly Nemick describes our universal vocation as the “how we are to become who/what we are meant to be” (Mystical Journey, 44). Consider these words carefully. A vocation is the special way in which we live out the universal appeal that God makes to us.
To create a vocation, God takes our personality, our lifestyle, our giftednes and weaves that all together to draw us into a future life with Him. The resulting mix is rather amazing and unique blend. God can even absorb our efforts to fight our true calling.
Shaine Claiborne has it right when he observes our following the voice of God (the divine call to Love God and Neighbors) results in radically different form of discipleship. Zachaeus and Matthew were both tax collectors, but their face-to-face encounters with Jesus led to different callings. This means that “some will leave their jobs and others will redefine them” (Claiborne, Irresistable Revolution, 140).
How has your vocation affected your job, your personality, and your life?
True vocation leaves its mark. What mark has it made on you?
Do you genuinely like how you are living out your vocation?
