Finding Your Calling

I found an amazing book one night while I was out at one of my favorite spots - Barnes & Noble. The book is called God Never Blinks by Regina Brett. If the title doesn't already make you fall in love with it, let me just say how amazing this book truly is. Each chapter is filled with little stories and lessons to make you think. To inspire you. To motivate you. To get you on your feet. I can open up to any page, read for ten minutes, and be left feeling like I can pretty much conquer anything. 

So, the other day, I did just that. I randomly opened up to a chapter and started reading. This chapter was entitled, "Don't Compare Your Life to Others'. You Have No Idea What Their Journey is All About." Amen, right? But the chapter was really about so much more than just that. A good portion of the message within this chapter focused on truly finding our calling/vocation in life.

Regina talked about how growing up in Catholic school, the students' options were basically to become either a priest or a nun. That was to be their "vocation" in life. She mentioned how most of those students ended up choosing jobs and careers instead of callings and vocations. She herself ended up jumping around from job to job before eventually finding that writing was her calling. However, before she knew that writing was her calling in life, she read something written by Frederick Buechner that really put everything into perspective for her.

I wanted to share that quote with you today:

“The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done…The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” 

- Frederick Buechner

Regina paraphrased it by saying, "The place God chose for you is the intersection where your greatest joy and the world's greatest need meet."

Read that one more time. Let is resonate with you. 

She said it really helped her to fine-tune her focus in life and now it's helping me to fine-tune my own. We were each given talents and strengths that are completely unique to us. That didn't just happen by coincidence. We each have a calling here on Earth. It is up to us to seek it out and put it into action.

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The idea of finding my purpose and my calling has been on my mind for years, to be honest. Reading this one, five-paged chapter brought some very important insight into my life and has pushed me forward into making it all a reality.

I think this post is going to tie in nicely with Thursday's Journey Forward post on what challenges and set-backs we have encountered through our Journey thus far. So, be sure check back in on Thursday for that :)

Now, I'm curious to know - have you found your calling yet? Are you on your way toward finding it?