Despite the vast changes in work and society, we
continue to ask children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” We plant in children at an early age that
their work, their job, will be an important part of their identity. Perhaps we would serve them better if we
asked the question, “What will you become?”
There seems to be renewed interest among Baptist
Christians in the concepts of vocation and calling. The words are used in different ways in
various contexts. Although we tend to
think about only those who work with the sacred as having a “calling” and those
who work in the secular world as having a “vocation,” this is not true in all
Christian traditions and is probably poor theology.
Whether we see what we do as a vocation or a calling,
they are intertwined. The message is the
same: We serve God by responding to the
prompting of God to do that for which we are best equipped. Our vocation or
calling should be an expression of what God has designed each of us to be and
become.
My own experience
of calling to a ministry vocation slowly emerged as an inner sense of
“rightness” and an outer affirmation of other voices came into alignment. I did not hear that “still small voice,” but
I became gradually aware of my own gifts and competencies and, almost hungrily,
grasped any word of encouragement or affirmation I received from mentors or
peers about my gifts for ministry. The
truth here (in my experience anyway) is that the call to vocational ministry
does not happen in a vacuum. It results
from the intersection between one’s growing understanding of his or her
God-given gifts and one’s involvement in a community of a faith.
In subsequent years, I have learned that this calling
to a vocation is not a static experience.
As we go trough life and encounter new experiences, learning, and
opportunities, our sense of calling continues to evolve. Ernesto Carnedal wrote,
"God’s call, vocation, is twofold. God calls us
saying, ‘Come, follow me.’ We arrive and then we must follow. We find but must
go on seeking. God’s call is a never-ending call, to the unknown, to adventure,
to follow him in the night, in solitude. It is a call incessantly to go
further, and further. For it is not static but dynamic (as creation also is
dynamic) and reaching him means going on and on. God’s call is like the call to
become an explorer; it is an invitation to adventure.”
No matter what age we may be, we can continue to ask
the question, “What will you become?”
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