I have always found the idea of a calling intriguing—intriguing because important, yet elusive. For a long time in western history calling was associated with either the priesthood or the monastery. In other words, calling involved activities that were necessarily religious. At the beginning of the early modern period, calling was expanded to include all walks of life. Whatever your activity in life was to be perceived as a calling from God. God was involved in all, not just the religious life. More recently calling was narrowed again to include only pastors and missionaries. “Do you have a calling?” referred to “home mission” or “foreign mission.” There was still a shadow of the idea of a non-religious calling, but related to only a few professions. Medicine was a calling. Teaching was a calling, but few other professions were. I take the broader view: that God is involved in the whole of life and that each of us has a particular responsibility to find that which God wants us to be and do. I also take an egalitarian view: that each calling is necessary and that each contributes to the whole. It is a circle rather than a pyramid. It is about equality rather than hierarchy.
A calling amounts to a conviction that God wants you to be in a certain place in life. Finding your calling helps you to make sense of things. It is the calling that gives purpose and meaning. When difficulties and doubts arise, it is to the calling that you return. Callings may also be multiple. All of us in the Lindisfarne Community are “bi-vocational.” We are called to the new monasticism and its spiritual practice and called to some other place in life (in healthcare, in education, in industry, in full-time parenting and many others). Some of us are “tri-vocational.” We add to the other two the calling of priesthood: a particular sacramental calling as a sign of incarnation, Christ in us and for all.
But, how to find your calling?
In the scriptures there are many accounts of calling by God. One delightful story is that of Samuel. As a young boy he hears a voice calling his name. He is unsure who called and goes to Eli. Three times Eli tells the boy Samuel he did not call him. Then the penny drops! Eli realizes that it is God who is calling Samuel. When the voice is heard again Samuel is to say, “Speak for your servant is listening.” Little Samuel is compliant and the voice becomes clearer and God appears to him.
The story gives hints about being called. It presents us with a difficulty and a requirement. The difficulty is hearing correctly. How would I know if I am being called in a certain direction? How could I be sure it is God who is calling me and not merely my imagination? But then, perhaps my imagination is the way God calls me? Hearing the inner voice is not an easy exercise. It requires patience and practice.
It brings us to the requirement. The requirement is listening—listening to the inner voice. Being still before it. All dialogue begins with listening. There is silence before there is speech. The listening is also communal. Wisely, the boy Samuel checks out his hearing abilities with the older Eli. It is in conversation with Eli that Samuel learns how to listen to the inner voice. To discern a calling, wise counsel is required. A calling is not merely individualistic. Even then, with all the wise counsel in the world, hearing correctly and listening intently is not an exact science. There will always be ambiguity. To follow a calling is much like Kierkegaard’s existential “leap into the dark.”
Most callings require preparation. Over time, say, you increasingly feel that you ought to be a teacher of small children. You find your passion there. You try to forget it, yet it comes back to you again and again. You check out your sense with other folk. They agree with you: you’d make a great teacher. So you prepare. Depending on what you have already done, you will at least have return to school to spend two years getting a masters degree in education (in the US context), or perhaps go back to college to get a bachelors degree. It all takes time as you prepare to fulfill your calling. In the preparation time, the calling will be tested many times. When you begin to practice, the calling will not always be fulfilling and there will be arid times. There will be doubts, too, yet you return again and again to the call.
A final thought. Callings are not static. They change over a lifetime. This, too, adds complication for there is an element of provisionality about every calling. Part of the secret is to go on listening. Be often in silence. Discern the change of the season. Have wise friends. “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
+Ab. Andy
A calling amounts to a conviction that God wants you to be in a certain place in life. Finding your calling helps you to make sense of things. It is the calling that gives purpose and meaning. When difficulties and doubts arise, it is to the calling that you return. Callings may also be multiple. All of us in the Lindisfarne Community are “bi-vocational.” We are called to the new monasticism and its spiritual practice and called to some other place in life (in healthcare, in education, in industry, in full-time parenting and many others). Some of us are “tri-vocational.” We add to the other two the calling of priesthood: a particular sacramental calling as a sign of incarnation, Christ in us and for all.
But, how to find your calling?
In the scriptures there are many accounts of calling by God. One delightful story is that of Samuel. As a young boy he hears a voice calling his name. He is unsure who called and goes to Eli. Three times Eli tells the boy Samuel he did not call him. Then the penny drops! Eli realizes that it is God who is calling Samuel. When the voice is heard again Samuel is to say, “Speak for your servant is listening.” Little Samuel is compliant and the voice becomes clearer and God appears to him.
The story gives hints about being called. It presents us with a difficulty and a requirement. The difficulty is hearing correctly. How would I know if I am being called in a certain direction? How could I be sure it is God who is calling me and not merely my imagination? But then, perhaps my imagination is the way God calls me? Hearing the inner voice is not an easy exercise. It requires patience and practice.
It brings us to the requirement. The requirement is listening—listening to the inner voice. Being still before it. All dialogue begins with listening. There is silence before there is speech. The listening is also communal. Wisely, the boy Samuel checks out his hearing abilities with the older Eli. It is in conversation with Eli that Samuel learns how to listen to the inner voice. To discern a calling, wise counsel is required. A calling is not merely individualistic. Even then, with all the wise counsel in the world, hearing correctly and listening intently is not an exact science. There will always be ambiguity. To follow a calling is much like Kierkegaard’s existential “leap into the dark.”
Most callings require preparation. Over time, say, you increasingly feel that you ought to be a teacher of small children. You find your passion there. You try to forget it, yet it comes back to you again and again. You check out your sense with other folk. They agree with you: you’d make a great teacher. So you prepare. Depending on what you have already done, you will at least have return to school to spend two years getting a masters degree in education (in the US context), or perhaps go back to college to get a bachelors degree. It all takes time as you prepare to fulfill your calling. In the preparation time, the calling will be tested many times. When you begin to practice, the calling will not always be fulfilling and there will be arid times. There will be doubts, too, yet you return again and again to the call.
A final thought. Callings are not static. They change over a lifetime. This, too, adds complication for there is an element of provisionality about every calling. Part of the secret is to go on listening. Be often in silence. Discern the change of the season. Have wise friends. “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
+Ab. Andy