Vocation
“A
society in which vocation and job are separated for most people
gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that
frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls.”
Sam Keen
Vocation and job are
sometimes the same. I think, right away, of pastors, who feel they
have been called by God to go to seminary. For me, that call was to
counseling. I found in my twenties that people much older than I felt
they could talk with me about things that were weighing heavily on
them. I never understood the "why" of that trust—but it became
undeniable that this is what I was called to do. To be sure, there
are folks who go into ministry and counseling, who are there for the
wrong reasons, but as with medicine, and law enforcement, I think
that the majority of people drawn to such professions truly want to
be servants. There is nothing quite so reassuring as a doctor or an
officer, who treats everyone with respect and compassion.
Conversely, there is
nothing quite so distressing as a “servant” who is simply there
to make money. A doctor or a counselor, who is mostly concerned about
the time on the clock, and the payment of their bill, is someone who
is not living from vocation, but is simply working at a job. There is
a lack of soul that is palpable in such people. I remember a relative
of mine, a Psychiatrist, no less, who actually told me his only
interest was “in the double-blues,” that being Blue Cross/Blue
Shield. I felt for his patients.
But you don't have to be
in a service profession to operate from vocation. Many people who
love their work, who wake up excited about what the day holds, are
living out their calling. In the words of Viktor Frankl, “Everyone
has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry
out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment.” That is one's
soul-calling—what one is born into this life at this time to do.
Whether you're in business, or accounting, work in a laundry, or on
an assembly line, if your heart and soul are in what you do, you will
be a success at it, and furthermore, you will inspire others.
Soprano, Jessye Norman, put it this way, “One needs more than
ambition and talent to make a success of anything, really. There must
be love and vocation.”
Vocation is soul-inspired
and soul-directed. The question for today: What are you called to do?
What is your vocation? Are you following it? If not, what needs to
happen for you to get there? We are not called simply to make money
to enrich ourselves; we are called to fulfill our life's purpose.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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