Where Vocation Lives

We were spending a week with my aging parents in Florida, and our 10-year-old was bored and restless. Try as she might, she could not figure out what she wanted to do. There weren’t many choices: go to the pool, read, or…what?

So I asked her to try something that’s worked for me. She quieted her mind, focused inward, and tried to listen for anything that bubbled to the surface. After a minute or so, she said, “I think I want to play with pipe cleaners.”

So, much to the bemusement of my parents, we went out and bought pipe cleaners. And she was happy and engaged for the rest of our stay.

I wonder if vocation is like that.

Saturday’s religion section includes a story of a woman who was on track to become an attorney. When her mother took ill, however, she came back to our region to care for her—and found a part-time job as a youth minister. “It was then,” she wrote, “that I realized working with teens and sharing my faith has always been my passion.”

Note: has always been my passion.

I suspect vocation is like that. The calling lives in us all along; our challenge is to discover it—to sort through the many facets of ourselves and find the one thing that strikes right to the heart of who we are.

Not that the path to this discovery is entirely introspective. Nowadays, we get our kids involved in all manner of activities. The purpose is not (I hope!) to push them into a particular activity, or teach them to become overachievers; we’re simply giving them the chance to see what really ignites them.

In other words, we’re helping them find their vocation.

That trial and error is important (in moderation). More important, however, is what we do during the trial and error: we pay attention to our souls. We ask ourselves: What happens when I do x? Do I sense a peace, a purpose, when I do y? What passion sits at the base of my being?

Simple attention drew our daughter to the one thing that would fulfill her during that vacation. Simple attention can help us find our own vocation in life, then pursue it for what it is: the will of God for us.