All of us have a vocation to marriage, single life, religious life, or ordained life. But within, or in addition to, that life, can be our vocation to use our spiritual gifts in service to God and our brothers and sisters. These gifts deepen and enhance our spirits so that we actively seek to "be Christ" to others and "find Christ" in them, whatever we're doing and wherever we are. This passionate desire to listen to God's words for us personally and to live as transparently and authentically as we can takes a lot of courage, a lot of daring to be ourselves, no matter what others may think of us, sometimes no matter what we think of ourselves.
Parker J. Palmer (photo above) has tried to live by Sarton's words. Founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal, Palmer is a world-renowned writer, speaker and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. He has reached millions worldwide through his nine books, including "Let Your Life Speak", "The Courage to Teach", "A Hidden Wholeness", and "Healing the Heart of Democracy." But it took Palmer, a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) time - and especially prayer time - to find out who he is, deep down, and have the courage to embrace, reveal, and live authentically as his true self, his self that originated with God and belongs to God. He says,
"I was in my early thirties when I began, literally, to wake up to questions about my vocation. By all appearances, things were going well, but the soul does not put much stock in appearances. Seeking a path more purposeful than accumulating wealth, holding power, winning at competition, or securing a career, I had started to understand that it is indeed possible to live a life other than one’s own. . . .
"Then I ran across the old Quaker saying, “Let your life speak.” I found those words encouraging, and I thought I understood what they meant: 'Let the highest truths and values guide you. Live up to those demanding standards in everything you do.' . . .
"So I lined up the loftiest ideals I could find and set out to achieve them. The results were rarely admirable, often laughable, and sometimes grotesque. But always they were unreal, a distortion of my true self—as must be the case when one lives from the outside in, not the inside out. I had simply found a “noble” way to live a life that was not my own, a life spent imitating heroes instead of listening to my heart.
"Today, some thirty years later, 'Let your life speak” means something else to me . . . : 'Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen to what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent.'” (from "Let Your Life Speak: Listening to the Voice of Vocation.")
What does your life intend to do with you? If we want to know the deepest answer to this question, we need to listen to God's Call, deep within our hearts. Each of us is made in the Image and Likeness of God, and God invites us to participate in God's ever-flowing life of love. Fr. Richard Rohr asks us to consider that
"God’s image within each of us is inherent and irrevocable. God’s likeness is our unique expression of that image, inviting our full and conscious participation. Vocation is one way in which we discover and grow into our “True Self.” I’m not speaking so much about education, career, or livelihood, though in some cases they might overlap. In general, it is a Larger Life that somehow calls us forward (vocatio means “a call or summons” in Latin), more than we call it to us. We do not know its name yet, so how can we call it? If we engineer the process too much, we often mistake a security-based occupation for our soul’s vocation.'
Parker continues, "Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. . . . That insight is hidden in the word vocation itself, which is rooted in the Latin for “voice.” Vocation does not mean a goal I pursue. It means a calling that I hear. . . . I must listen for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity."
But, as Palmer discovered, on our journey to find our True Self, we can make mistakes along the way. Palmer first got caught in the mistake of thinking that the most fulfilling life is one of accumulating wealth, power, prestige, and winning. Certainly if we're responsible, we do our best to make a financially secure life for ourselves and our families. But we can do that without falling into the trap of making wealth, power, security, and winning our obsessive priorities.
There are even some "Christians" out there who have a distorted idea that if you're poor, it means that you aren't "right" with God! As if GOD'S priority is wealth and power, when Christ commanded us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, because we serve Christ in them.
Next, as Palmer approached life more spiritually, he made the mistake of imitating other people, certain spiritual heroes, instead of appreciating his own distinct personality and gifts. God doesn't call us to become just like our most inspiring friend or hero. All God wants from us is who WE are - because no one else could fill the void if we weren't "ourselves."
Sometimes we may want to have someone else's gift or gifts - or even lifestyle - so much that we behave as if we do have them - and that hurts our ability to be ourselves, and frustrates us also. Others may try to tell us who we are or should be instead of appreciating the unique self that we are, and sometimes even try to guilt-trip us to be "more like" a parent or sibling. Only taking the time to go off by ourselves and listen to God's small voice in our hearts can bring us back to the center of who we are.
Each of us prays uniquely, plays uniquely, works uniquely, loves uniquely. Can we accept that about ourselves? God yearns for us to become truly who we are, not a cookie cutter image of someone else..
If we forget about ourselves and our hang-ups and stop worrying about what others think of us, life becomes joyful and we look forward to each new encounter with another - especially those most different from us - and each new opportunity to share one of our gifts, even if we don't get paid for using it.
When we truly listen to God's call to us, and live out our unique vocation to use our unique gifts, then we are truly free. St. Philip Neri recognized that he had the great spiritual gift of listening to and affirming others, and that, for him, walking was a uniquely good time of the day to use this gift, and also that others could spiritually profit from walking and praying together. "Take Five for Faith" (Sat. May 26) tells us,
"Saint Philip Neri (1515-95) must have had a good cobbler, because he sure put a lot of miles on his shoes. He sauntered through Rome, striking up conversations with whomever he met, beggars or bankers, warming hearts as he talked about God. Often, he’d bid them walk and talk with him en route to a church or hospital. Later, after becoming a priest, he organized pilgrimages to churches in the city, inviting people to walk and pray together. As the one who brought the Forty Hours Devotion to Rome, Philip would like today’s practice of walking in procession as a prelude to adoring the Blessed Sacrament. Sometimes we need to wear out our soles to touch the souls of others."
Obviously the simple, humble poor cleric Philip Neri did not waste emotional energy worrying about what a rich banker thought of him, nor did he worry about others seeing him visiting with a poor beggar. He was simply being himself, showing a genuine interest in others as children of God who needed to hear more about their Heavenly Father. He also had the unique insight that walking and praying can fit well together - and the courage to suggest that to others and make it happen.
God is never impressed if we tell Him that we're too afraid and shy to do something. If we're petrified by shyness, we can think of that wonderful word of greeting, "Namaste." Simply put, namaste intimates the following:‘The God in me greets the God in you. The Spirit in me meets the same Spirit in you.’ In other words, it recognizes the equality of all, and pays honor to the sacredness of all. Surely this is what Neri thought as he greeted one stranger after another with warmth and kindness.
How wonderful it would be if, instead of being negatively absorbed by our own draw-backs, we would positively look forward to meeting others because we remember that whenever we greet another, the God in us is greeting the God in him or her. We can be free to be ourselves with others if we live participating in God's life, if we breathe in God as God breathes in us, if we breathe immersed in God as God breathes immersed in us. Then the life of God Who is joyous Love flows through us, freeing us to bring our precious gift of self to the world of strangers around us. Parker Palmer says,
"How much dissolving and shaking of ego we must endure before we discover our deep identity—the true self within every human being that is the seed of authentic vocation. . . .
"Today I understand vocation . . . not as a goal to be achieved but as a gift to be received. Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already possess. Vocation does not come from a voice “out there” calling me to become something I am not. It comes from a voice “in here” calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God."
It takes opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit's gift of courage and daring to listen actively to God's call (vocatio) in our lives, God's call to us to allow our true self, true life inside, to speak to us. It's so easy to fall into the trap of buying into society's values - wealth, power, prestige, winning - and trying to build our lives around these distorted priorities. We can even adopt spiritual values and then make the mistake of trying to become someone else, some person or saint whom we look up to. But we are not cookie cutter images of other people, no matter how much we may admire them. We are simply ourselves, no matter how frightening or strange that may at first appear to be. When we allow God to love us, we realize that we are neither frightening nor strange; we are beautiful and unique children of God with an important role to play in helping to co-create this world with God.
Once we accept the treasure of true self we already possess deep inside us, we are truly free: free from self-condemnation, free from being affected by the condemnations of others, free to love God and others in the most brilliant, creative, unique ways. Living in, with, and through the powerful flow of Divine Love, we experience that in every encounter with another, the God in us joyously meets and greets the God in him or her.
Vocation is a gift we receive from the tender hands of God. And we can rejoice mightily in the Holy Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of Wisdom, Who will lead us and blow us wherever and whenever She wills!